I have been playing around with phphGroupware (version 0.9.16.011) for a little while, trying to get a feel for it. On the surface, it is fairly simple to use. And yet, it is also a fairly complex and flexible system. The question is, just how useful is it?

If you need a place on the big wide Internet to conduct business with others in remote geographic locations, you definitely need to consider using some sort of groupware solution. I have tinkered with e-Groupware in the past, and thought to give phpGroupware a go, especially since it is an official GNU project. The installation process isn't all that bad, and most of the included applications are fairly simple to use, especially if you are comfortable using web applications. The most confusing thing to me is the website management section. I feel absolutely lost when it comes to creating a front page for the office site. I plan to spend some time covering phpGroupware, and hope you'll follow along.

Note: Apparently, e-Groupware broke off from phpGroupware around 2000. I am not sure how closely the two projects match, in terms of code. Featurewise, they both seem to have the same general features. I am focusing on phpGroupware specifically here, and not intending to compare the two projects.

Applications

The list of available applications included with phpGroupware is pretty lengthy. The typical PIM suite (calendar, contacts, notes and planning), along with project management, knowledge base, trouble ticket system and file management - among others - make it a serious tool for setting up your on-line office. You couldn't share information faster if you walked a couple of cubicles down to hand someone a piece of paper. Additionally, other tools let you read the news and comics, track the stock market and even play music. And you can even give your office a professional front page for employees and customers to see when they login.

Need to communicate? No problem. phpGroupware includes forum and chat facilities, along with the ability to plug into your e-mail system and Usenet Newsgroups. I have not been able to get the e-mail or newsgroup function working yet, but I can continue using my current webmail application, Horde, so I'm not out in the cold. The front page is the other troublesome application for me, but again is not a show-stopper. Give me time, and I will figure out these details as well. I could probably use the chat facility, but at the moment, I'm the only person in my outfit to chat with. While it might prove to be an interesting conversation, I just don't feel like putting it to the test that way.

One thing that sticks out in my mind is that, unlike e-Groupware, which has a sort of drop-down menu to hide the apps you use the least, phpGroupware seems to try to cram all the tools across the top of the screen. Still, you can change the theme, and one or more of those runs the app icons down the side, rather than across the top. I still think the e-Groupware approach is kind of slick though.

The PIM applications work fairly well, for the most part. The calendar is simple to understand and use. The address book leaves something to be desired, however. While I like the fact that organizations are separated from users, the various import methods did not work very well, if at all. To make matters worse, there seems to be no easy way to select a bunch of contacts for deletion at once. There are, believe it or not, times when you may want to do this. And then, a large number of imported contacts had no organization listed, even though it was in their records in Kontact. vCard is the best export method, but you better do each contact individually, if you want the information to import into phpGroupware correctly.

I had problems with the InfoLog as well. Everytime I tried to update a task, Infolog would change the screen and the task would be back in its previous state. Thus, tasks that had been completed continued to show as being incomplete. Even changing the permissions settings did not help. Even so, one would think that the owner of a task should be able to change its status without having to fiddle with permissions.

One thing that has worked well is the File Manager. I'm glad, too, since that is one of the most important features for me. I frequently need to access files from different locations, and do not always have them immediately available. Additionally, I anticipate needing to share documents with others and want to have a central repository. File Manager does a fine job of handling file uploads, creating directories and even automagically detects a new version of an existing file.

I have not had much opportunity to use the project management, bug tracker, trouble ticket or knowledge base tools, so I can speak for those just yet. But the Headlines, Comics and bookmarks are mostly useful. Some of the included comics choices only include external links, rather than letting you view the comic within phpGroupware. It's more of a minor annoyance than a real problem though. Still, it's pretty cool to login and have your calendar and favorite comic strip in front of you, alongside a listing of tasks you will need to address for the day.

There were definitely some issues with phpGroupware, some of which seem to be bugs in the system, but other are more due to lack of experience with the Groupware apps on my part. And the phpGroupware team needs a documentation writer - the little they have just ain't much. Even so, I should note that the project just released a new version, and I was unable to get it installed before I published this. In that light, please stick with me, as I will be installing the new version and writing about how that goes.