Hi,
I’ve been looking for a good, simple open source “file-upload” tool like getcloudapp, mega, yousendit/Hightail etc.
Basically a S3 backed frontend with TTL, audit trail, and login to manage uploads.
any tips?
@pdvyas might be able to help you. Else try asking on Reddit. It’s a much larger community and has opinionated users.
Thanks,
Anand.
Have you tried ownCloud?
We want to build a file manager front end in Frappe… Sometime 2015
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Are thinking of document management integrated with ERPNext? I appreciate being able to attach a file to an item (e.g. a CAD file, data sheet for a commercial-off-the-shelf product, or a test report for a certain serial number of stock item - if that is even possible), but that is not sufficient for full PLM, and I would prefer to have a fully integrated PLM/ERP solution than have to maintain a standard-alone PLM system. I am not fully familiar with ownCloud, but I believe it is more suited to general file sharing, but may not necessarily have change management functionality needed for PLM.
Are you aware of the “Mayan EDMS” project? It has the basic features for PLM and may be a better fit depending on what you are trying to achieve.
Dale
P.S. I haven’t seen any rules for posting replies, such as saying top posting is not allowed (like this). Is posting this way allowed?
@Dale_Scott so far no such rules. We will make them as and when required. IMO there should be no rules except on spamming and offending others.everything else is fair game.
By the way. What’s a PLM?
-Anand.
PLM = Prodict Lifecycle Management1. PLM is concerned with part numbers (items) , bills of materials (the hierarchical structure of items in a product), supporting documentation (e.g. manufacturers’ datasheets, CAD drawings, work instructions and procedures…), and a defined process for making changes (many companies call it an ECO (Engineering Change Order) process.
PLM is not so applicable to a merchandising (reselling) company or a services company, but it is a critical function in a design and manufacturing company. When a defect is identified in a product, either due to non-complying stock provided by a vendor, an error in design, or an error in a process, the PLM provides structure to understand and manage the change, with an auditable trail. Much like an ERP does for financial processes and transactions.
Example 1. An M5 screw on a bill of materials was found to be too short, and was replaced with a longer one. Rather than just delete the short screw on the bom and add the longer one, the PLM process will cause the creation of a new revision of the bom - with the new screw. This is done in order to differentiate the old bom from the new bom, by giving them a revision level identifier (e.g. Revision 1 -> Revision 2).
Example 2. If later it was decided that the screw should be an M8 for increased strength, which required a custom flange to be modified, because it had a tapped hole for the screw which had to be changed from M5 to M8, the design of the flange would be updated with new CAD files created for the machine shop as well as assembly diagrams for assembly workers. The revised flange would have a new revision level, and the parent bom with containing the flange and screw would also be revised and assigned a new revision level.
Why go to so much effort?
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So that purchase orders for the old revision levels can be identified and stopped, returned, re-worked, scrapped, etc.
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So that work in process on the shop floor using the old bom can be stopped, reworked, scrapped, etc.
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So product made using the old bom level and already sold to customers can be identified, recalled, repaired, etc.
There are commercial PLM products, used as a stand-alone product by the engineering division of a company, or sometimes integrated with an ERP system. However, typical PLM systems are complex and can be as expensive to purchase, implement and operate as an ERP system. However, this is because they are mainly purchased by big complex companies and, as we know from ERPNext, this does not have to be the case.
Manufacturing companies are missing out on opportunities to benefit from PLM integrated with an ERP. Instead, they tend to reply on key people with good memories, spreadsheets, and ad hoc network directories for saving documents. I think there is a huge opportunity for ERPNext in this area.
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Yeah we could do a PLM (and many more things!). Its just that we are pretty much bottled up for resources at the moment. Will be great if you can sponsor such a project and I am sure some devs from the community can build it.
We would be happy to be involved in design / feedback / quality control and integrate this in the product.
Going back to ownCloud, what is the use-case? What is the idea for how it fits with ERPNext?
Use case is one-box (open source) for your org. This is a much needed requirement for small companies so in one install you have:
- Files
- ERP (accounting, projects, CRM etc)
just checked ownCloud, thanks! Massive project, nice but a bit too much for my needs, I’m more looking for something ultra-simple that can be easily modified.
I ran across minbox.com commercial but looks nice
I’ve been watching a couple fairly light-weight PHP web apps. OpenDocMan is one example that would meet my basic needs (check-out, modify, check-in, get back old revision, use doc-number only in url to get latest version, include revision-level in url for specific version, etc.). I’m ok if everyone has read access to every document, but changes have to be controlled.
It is less clear how to integrate the doc management system with ERPNext. My “simple” proposal is to use the existing “attachments” button to launch a new browser tab/window to access the doc control system. A config/setup variable could select between ERPNext “default” doc control system or an external doc control system. Only one attachment per ERPNext “document” is supported by the default (ERPNext) doc control system, with no history of changes to the attached file. Using the external doc control system, a unlimited number of files can be “attached” to an ERPNext document, with full change history of each attachment also maintained.
It’s important that user authentication be transparent for users. ERPNext could provide an authentication service to the doc control system (Postfix and Dovecot provide an authentication service other apps can use), or it could be simpler for both apps to authenticate using LDAP as a single point of authentication. There have been some recent posts on LDAP authentication, but I haven’t reviewed in depth and don’t know if it’s discussions or a working solution.
When the “attachment” button is clicked in ERPNext and the user is sent to the doc control system, it should be possible to do something intelligent based on the context in ERPNext (e.g. if the user is in an item master in ERPNext, then open a search in the doc control system for that item code).
I’m all for a simple solution now, complexity can come later. There is value in “bundling” OwnCloud with ERPNext for convenience during install, and when what the user needs is a general purpose CMS, but to me the real leverage is in associating ad hoc files with ERPNext documents - work instructions with an assembly item, a test result with the item serial number tested, etc.
I can’t help with coding in the foreseeable future, but am very interested and willing to help formulate the spec, and to test development code and release candidates.
Dale
Thanks @Dale_Scott for the feedback.
Permission protecting files attached to documents in the immediate roadmap (v5). Do keep testing!