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

[Alexander Lamb]

>

Thanks a lot for the fast response!

>> 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.
>
> I guess it depends on how you define "SIMPLE",  I wouldn't call
> OpenGroupware or any real groupware package SIMPLE.  It is pretty  
> simple
> to administer and use.

I also meant simple to install and configure. But your answers below  
make me think it is at least as "simple" as any other CMS!

>
>> 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).
>
> There is one calender in OGo,  appointments have participants and  
> access
> permissions (actually a nicer model then multiple calendars once  
> you get
> used to it).  You should be able to accomplish what you want.

So basically, what you see in the calendar depends on your  
permissions and the participants you are interested in seeing?
Nice concept.
So it means I can decide to see "all events for user A" or "all  
events for users A, B and C"

>
>> It must be possible to display the day with the appointments of the 3
>> physicians and maybe the 3 beds (ideally 6 columns).
>
> Not certain what you mean.

Well, if I show in the same column (for today for exemple) the  
appointments for 3 users, they will obviously overlap making it a bit  
confused. It is nicer to have (for a given day) one column for user  
A, one column for user B, etc...

>
>> 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.
>
> Appointments have notes.  If the patients are entered into the  
> system as
> contacts they can be tied to appointments,  the contact view I think
> shows the previous and upcoming 30(?) days.

That's perfect!
>
>> 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.
>
> You can import delimited files.
>
>> 1)
>> How long (easy) is it to setup an OpenGroupware server on MacOSX?
>> (taking into account my profile)
>
> No idea, we are a SuSe shop.

So, for Linux, how long to compile, setup the module, etc... just the  
time for compiling and seting some environment variables? This would  
imply that in half a day I am up and running?

>
>> 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?
>
> The OGo daemon is accessed via an Apache module.

So there is one OGo deamon (the equivalent of an WebObjects instance/ 
process) and one Apache module to redirect HTTP requests correctly.  
Correct? This means the OGo daemon handles user sessions in memory  
(as WebObjects). The OGo daemon then connects to PostgreSQL via its  
libraries.

>
>> 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?
>
> If you want roles for appointment particpants which are quite usefule
> you need to use 1.1.x, otherwise you can use 1.0.x.

Would you say the latest 1.1.x is stable enough for the small setup I  
need to accomodate?

Anyhow, thanks a LOT for the fast response!!

Alex