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Is SilverStripe right for our project?


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jtnick

Community Member, 3 Posts

20 May 2009 at 1:15pm

Hi everyone,

I'm getting ready to start development on a somewhat large undertaking and am looking for honest feedback on whether SilverStripe is right for the job. My company's past experience has been with creating websites, web apps, and CMS systems from scratch. While everything has worked out positively, we have yet to tackle a project of this scope and scale. In addition, we have grown to learn the benefits a framework provides, which certainly does not need explanation with you all.

We are looking for a framework that can provide what our clients are looking for and is flexible enough that we do not end up boxing ourselves into a hole we can not dig out of.

We are open to using SilverStripe for a 2-part project and would love to know if this tool is truly a good fit or not.

THE PROJECT

We've been asked by a non-profit to create a Web-based data application that will allow national staff and local agencies across the country to CRUD customer data, run reports on that data using predefined queries, export that data, and create a Query Builder, allowing them to run reports based on basic queries that are not already in the system.

The organization will have 2 levels, national and then agencies in different cities across the country. Each agency should only have access to their data, not the other agencies. In addition, the National organization should have access to aggregate data from all agencies. The breakdown would be:

- One National Organization
- Many Agencies across the country
- Each Agency will consist of :
1. Admin
2. Licensed Organization Member
3. Staff

National Organization
--------------------------------------
The organization oversees all the agencies. They will need the following functions:

- Add/Edit/Delete Agencies from the system
- Run reports on the data from all agencies
-

Agencies
--------------------------------------
The Agencies work with children and their parents/guardians. A quick sampling of information the system will need to keep record of and run reports for include:

- Demographic information on the Children and their Parents/Guardians(includes many different fields and categories they may be assigned to)
- Relationships between children and parents (2 parents, 1 parent, orphan, brothers, sisters, etc.)
- Programs & Events for children and/or parents
- Attendance records on children and/or parents
- Track Progress within programs for each individuals

PHASE 2

After the initial build of this Customer Application and Reporting, the next phase will be to create a CMS that can power a website for the national organization and separate sites for each agency. They would all login to the same system, but update the information for their domain only. Each website would have a similar templates and content requirements, keeping things standardized across the board. They can pull in information that has been inputed into the database application, such has events and programs at their agency.

END GAME

At the end of the day, we'd love to give the client the ability to simply hit a few buttons, add a few users, and "presto", they've created a new agency that now has an account with a database app and their own website to fill content with. We would certainly help out with any DNS and domains items, but from a content standpoint, they could hit the ground running.

Based on this train of thought, would you suggest this framework for the job?

Thanks for reading and I appreciate any feedback/comments/suggestions.

Best regards,
jtnick