Public projects database

Question

I am looking for server side web software, preferably written in PHP and open source, that can help me achieve the following:

1. Provide a database of "projects"
2. Which can scale up to several thousands of entries
3. With entries submitted by public users who are authenticated in some way (possibly requiring tokens for sign up)
4. These entries will have certain set fields, such as project name, type, contacts, etc
5. And will also have multimedia uploads, such as Keynote presentations
6. The entries must be able to be verified in some way - e.g., have a confirmed/unconfirmed status that can only be set by someone with the correct privileges
7. The entries will be browsable (by field, tags, etc) and searchable.
8. The solution will be robust, queriable using complex conditions (this can be done by MySQL if it uses this, though) and have some sort of audit trail for data submission, loss, etc.
9. And public access (viewing, editing) can be managed by authentication.
10. ... And hopefully it'll be easily usable and... pretty - I want to make it easy and enjoyable for people to get involved.

Although there will be additional specific needs, I think that this gets the big picture idea across.

I've OSS considered modifying project management tools, CRMs and bug trackers but it looks like this would be the wrong road to go down.

Any ideas? I'd appreciate any input!

Thanks!

Answer 1

In my opinion the best choice would be adopting a CMS, like Joomla!, and make some advancements on it, like using K2 (a Joomla! component) to create the fields you need. My opinion is based on the following:

• A CMS will be able to handle several thousand of entries.
• You can have a CMS handle the process of authentication, even using a third party, like Facebook or Google.
• Using K2 or in some cases the tools available on CMS itself, you can have all the custom fields you'd need.
• Those custom fields will be able to receive file uploads like multimedia.
• CMSs are made to handle the work-flow of confirm/publish information entered by one.
• You will be able to browse and search your entries.
• It will be robust and secure, if well done.
• I think is more easy than trying to adapt a project management tool (I had a large experience on dotProject) or bug trackers.
• Depending on what you are going to do next with those info, a CRM tool like CiviCRM would also be a good choice, but should be a little more difficult than the CMS only option.

I'll be glad to discuss it further. Regards.