Is joomla suitable for internal website construction? |
The only problem with using Joomla as a serious intranet tool is its complete lack of internal user access controls. A proper intranet tool has users, groups and sets access levels for objects. Joomla 1.0/1.5 is entirely unable to do that at the moment. The ACL add-ons that try to achieve this do not necessarily work on all implementations and all permutations of 3rd party components. I personally would love to be able to use/specify Joomla for use as an intranet CMS but unless you are a very friendly organisation that does not mind everyone seeing each other's content/files then I would seriously look elsewhere. When Joomla gets this bit of essential core functionality, when some of project management add-ons mature and when the file handling is more integrated then it might start to become usable as an intranet tool.
If you do use Joomla as the core of your intranet it will not be able to grow with your organisation, meaning that when the requirements for real internal security start to show their face, your Joomla intranet will be found wanting. Joomla 1.6 may start to address the ACL issues but we will have to see...{mosgoogle}
I would suggest that you look at MS Sharepoint services. I never thought I'd hear myself recommend a MS offering but having built 30 plus Joomla sites and several sharepoint intranets I appreciate the strength and versatility of Sharepoint. It isn't pretty but it does not need to be. It is not open source and an implementation is more expensive but it does the job. You can find sharepoint hosts for as little as $10 per month. They do the install, you fill up the site with your documents and content. |
Joomla 1.5 Tutorials