RubberDoc is a Document Management extensions developed for the Joomla! CMS version 1.5.

Using this extension it is very easy to upload a large number of documents ( PDF, Excell, Word, ... ) and assign them to different articles within the Joomla or present them as categories of documents or even generate RSS feeds of files.

These documents can either be made available publicly or be restricted to registere users and administrators only.

This project has been inspired by our client, Social Planning & Research Council of British Columbia (SPARC BC) , who will be using this extension on their soon to be launched website which is also developed by rmd Studio and it's associates.

RubberDoc was developed because other similar extensions were neither available for the native Joomla! 1.5 nor provided a simple and user friendly administration interface for the SPARC BC's staff. In it's first month of release, RubberDoc has been downloaded more than 1500 times.

This is a collaborative project between JenTekk Web Solutions , and rmd Studio Inc.

North49 is a Vancouver based company specialized in developing, installing, and maintaining Sage Accpac ERP since 1989. They are authorized partners and developers of Sage Software . The principle owners Etiene Grobler and Rob Eichhorn deliver more than 20 years of valuable experience to their clients offering CRM and Accounting applications. Their client list includes companies such as BC Hydro and Vancity Credit Union .

Their corporate website used to run using a set of php scripts on a Windows server. In order to update the site, their staff actually had to make changes to the website source code. In order to boost their marketing impact, their website needed to become more informative and visually more appealing.

Disclaimer

This case study does not discuss the detailed technical information exclusively developed for Premier, and does not include usable high resolution images of data models and UML diagrams. The employer and client proprietary information are not in any way discussed and disclosed in this article.

Premier's Corporate e-Catalog is built using Joomla! CMS which is an open source software protected by GNU Public License meaning that it cannot be patented or licensed by any entity or company.

Preface

I would like to express my gratitude towards the following people who participated in this project, took my criticism with the sweetness of their heart, and provided incredible amount of help, courage and support:

• Larry Renooy
• Bernie Van Spronsen
• Susan Bilczo
• Patricia Newbold
• Wim Kanis
• Jason Davies
• John Koetsier
• Suzan Pearson

Premier Agendas Ltd. is a student success and education services company located in Langley BC. It is specialized in developing customized school agendas and character development programs to help K12 and College students plan, organize and set goals for academic success. Premier serves thousands of schools throughout US and Canada.

Premier Learning Unit is a Learning Content Management System developed for online delivery of educational content to all the schools who are Premier’s clients. Premier Go and Premier Get Set are two student character development programs that are currently using PLU 2.0. This is the second customized LCMS web application developed for Premier Ltd.

Using this web application, Teachers and School Administrators are able to enroll their students in virtual classrooms where they are engaged in a set of online learning activities. In these lessons students watch videos, then they are quizzed. The result of their grades can be viewed instantly by their teacher using an online Grade-Book.

This case study is about using Open Source technologies for developing an enterprise Learning Content Management System. The reader of this case study is likely to be one of the following:

• Business, IT, or Project Manager
• Software Engineer, or Web Application Architect
• System Analyst, or Information Architect

Disclaimer

This case study focuses only on the publicly available portion of Premier Learning Unit web application, including the technical information which are considered Open Source therefore protected by the GNU Public license.

This case study does not discuss the detailed technical information exclusively developed for Premier, and does not include usable high resolution images of data models and UML diagrams. The employer and client proprietary information are not in any way discussed and disclosed in this Article.

The learning model described in this case study and used for Premier Learning Unit is an Open Standard provided to public by IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc. ( www.imsglobal.org ).

Premier Learning Unit web application is build using Mambo CMS , and later on using Joomla! CMS which are both open source software protected by GNU Public License , meaning that it cannot be patented or licensed by any company.

The most basic purpose of an Intranet is so we can publish documents or newsletters on a private network and make them only available to a selected group of people. Premier Agendas, an Education Services company in Langley, BC needed just that.

Problem with the bloated software

Most Intranet Applications are bloated with all kinds of fancy features that companies don't  even use. It takes more time to learn how to use a bloated application; it also requires more maintenance. All of those would cost a company extra time and money.

Every year Software vendors add more features to their products so they can justify Software Upgrades to their customers. Offering more features than a competition does is a strong selling point.

Companies who grow with multiple branches in different geographical locations, could benefit from using a web based secure intranet in order to stay connected and exchange valuable business information.

The Loan Processing Terminal and Intranet, was an in-house research & development project inspired by a request once submitted to rmd Studio. In the beginning, the intention was to develop just a prototype, surprisingly the end product turned out to be as good as a production quality web application.

Premier School Agendas Ltd. Is a student success and education services company with offices located in Langley, BC, Canada, and Bellingham, WA, USA.

Premier is specialized in manufacturing and distributing large selections of customized Student  Success Agendas and Character development resources. Their goal is to meet the unique needs of every school and their students in USA and Canada.

Health professionals need to constantly keep up with the latest scientific and medical research in order to stay current in their practice. The problem is, these people have very little time to constantly look for viable information resources or they often have to work in remote isolated geographical areas where academic institutions and knowledge organizations aren't easily accessible.

In May 2001, the Vice-Presidents Advisory Council (VPAC) formed the Telelearning Subcommittee (TS) consisting of representatives from each of five British Columbian Universities (UNBC, UVIC, UBC, SFU, and RRU) to address those issues by exploring online learning methodologies and technologies for the health professionals who are seeking workshops, courses, and programs offered by the participating universities.

rmd Studio has done 2 web development projects for the University of Northern BC 5 years ago. The Department of Computer Science website and the Northern Medical Program prototypical week website which was a small version of entire UNBC website customized for the new medical students visiting the UNBC campaus. Both websites are no longer online, however the screen captures and references still are.