[OGo-Discuss] Is OpenGroupware the solution for me?

[Alexander Lamb]

Hello,

Since I am new to the list, let me present myself.
My name is Alexander Lamb, I live in France but work in Geneva.
I worked for NeXT, then Apple, so when I read "Objective-C" it sort  
of reminded me of good memories!
I did quite a lot of OpenStep/Objective-C then WebObjects/Java  
development, but lately I am probably a bit rusty as a developer  
since I am now an IT manager at the Geneva University Hospital.  
Nevertheless, I can certainly still get my way through a database  
install or a recompile of a project! Contributing may be another  
matter, more for a question of time (maried, kids, house, work... you  
know:-)

Ok, here is the context:

I need to find a solution to manage a shared calendar for a small  
medical practice (my wife is a physician). There are 3 physicians,  
and 2-3 nurses for treatments (oncology). I searched a lot of the web  
but either found pure calendar solutions (such as meeting maker) of  
full featured (more or less) CMS (Mambo, etc...) or groupware  
(Zimbra). I don't like PhP. I like SIMPLE solutions. They all were  
much too complicated to setup and not easily extensible.
Another problem I have is it needs to be Mac and Windows compatible.

My first real need is therefore for a calendar for each user (3  
physicians and 3 beds). The possibility for the secretary to enter  
patients appointments. Same for the users (sometimes the physician  
will take an appointment sometimes it will be the secretary).
It must be possible to display the day with the appointments of the 3  
physicians and maybe the 3 beds (ideally 6 columns).
The physician must be able to find the next appointment scheduled for  
a patient and well as the previous appointment and optionnaly enter  
some comments.
Since the practice is small, confidentiality is not the first concern.

In a second stage, I will need to be able to upload patient into the  
OpenGroupware database (or vice versa) from an invoicing program.  
Also, maybe store documents on a per contact (patient) basis.

Questions:

1)
How long (easy) is it to setup an OpenGroupware server on MacOSX?  
(taking into account my profile)

2)
With the basic system (e.g. no customization except accounts  
creation) is it possible to "start working" from a Web interface?

3)
Some classes make me think of WebObjects. Does that mean I could  
customize some templates? Are there re-usable wo-components?

4)
I am not certain I understood what process exist: is it a  single  
process  (unix process) handling everything or is it a kind of Apache  
module?

5)
I understand I need to install PostgreSQL (recommended). It probably  
means I can get to the data quite easily?

6)
I understand it is possible to use iCal to view the calendar, however  
is it really necessary since the HTML version seems quite nice?

7)
Considering my previous questions and context, which version should I  
start with? and how easy is it to upgrade? (for example if I start  
with version 1, and then want to benefit or contribute to items in  
1.1, is it easy to upgrade)? Put differently, is it better in my  
situation to start with the lastest stable build for MacOSX or go for  
a previous final release?

Thanks,

Alex
--
Alexander Lamb
alamb@mac.com