2008-11-04, 04:50 PM
OK - I admit that I can't "showcase" this website as it's our internal Intranet, but I wanted to be able to show what MyBB can be capable of - so unfortunately it will have to be screenshot galore I'm afraid! This is to show integration between the forum and a website.
JDP is one of the UK's leading distributors of civil engineering drainage systems. Our parent company has a turnover in excess of €2billion, and we've been supplying the UK for over 30 years. However we have a problem with communication and the lack of "up-to-date" information (prices, technical information, forms etc.). We have 27 branches spread out across Britain, but not all of the 200 employees have access to email. So we needed a system where we can inform our people and give them the information they need all in one place. I was given the task of designing the system - and I chose MyBB as a backbone...
I chose MyBB because it is easily customized, lightweight, secure and easy to use for the end-user. But it didn't come without it's obstacles.
One of the important things is we needed to push important news out right to the front of the company. The problem, is that we have several different structures to the company. We have branch staff, regional managers, supervisors, management... we needed to give information to everyone, while also having the option to only allow certain people to see certain things. That's where the MyBB permissions come in...
The News System (Front screen - Forum backend) pulls information out of MyBB on a forum-permission basis. For example, only regional managers can see news for regional managers. This gives us the perfect platform to get the latest news out to the right people in our company. We also like to keep our people up to date with what's happening in the world too - using the RSS2Post plugin from DennisTT, we pull the latest information out of the BBC News website.
We also display news articles in full BB glory, with help from class_parser of course (Test article). We also use the attachment system (to be able to provide files per article) and related items system of MyBB in the news system, so that our people can access relevant information quickly.
One of the other important aspects of our Intranet has to be able to give our branches the most up to date information from our suppliers, and from us! Using MyBB's attachments system (Front screen - Forum backend), we can provide an archive of information that is easily maintained and easily accessed (Intranet view - Forum view). Using multiple jQuery applications, dynamic information is easily shown (File Information - Picture Slideshow).
As most of our branches run on Citrix servers, many can't access Windows search to find documents. So, we use MyBB's search functions to be able to find the things we're looking for (screenshot).
One of the other problems we face is having difficulty in finding people, where they are in the country and which branch they are in. For this, we modified the member search in MyBB (screenshot) to be able to find them by Region, Branch, Department and Name. These fields are custom profile fields joined into the normal search functions MyBB has.
I also included a Location Finder (screenshot) which will find the nearest branches to a user's search (they can enter city, major town or county in Britain). When a branch is viewed, the contact information for that branch is displayed (screenshot).
As well as implementing the messaging system (so only certain people can send messages, but everyone can receive), we have also used the Calendar feature in MyBB to help display the future events in the company, audits, stock takes and other helpful information (such as bank holidays).
We also have a customized "comments" system inbuilt so that people can leave their comments regarding different topics. For example, we can post an article about new changes to the company, and people can "reply" to them by posting - but via a webpage instead of the forum. It was important that only the people who will be posting articles and maintaining the Intranet can access the forum - everyone else is blocked from the forum index, and several other parts.
Working with out IT department, Windows Active Directory has also been integrated into the login system. This is so that people only need one login to remember across the company. We also changed the Profile pages (screenshot) so it is easier to view information about the people in the company. Utilizing the custom profile fields, we were able to make the integrated login with WAC easier. For example, my full name, short name, department, based at, region and contact information are all custom profile fields. This is so I can login under "tmoore", but still see my name everywhere!
It isn't completely finished, and there's still lots of changes I'll be making to our system, but the ways MyBB can be extended are helping to make a massive difference in our company. Hopefully this shows that MyBB can be used extensively in a website...
JDP is one of the UK's leading distributors of civil engineering drainage systems. Our parent company has a turnover in excess of €2billion, and we've been supplying the UK for over 30 years. However we have a problem with communication and the lack of "up-to-date" information (prices, technical information, forms etc.). We have 27 branches spread out across Britain, but not all of the 200 employees have access to email. So we needed a system where we can inform our people and give them the information they need all in one place. I was given the task of designing the system - and I chose MyBB as a backbone...
I chose MyBB because it is easily customized, lightweight, secure and easy to use for the end-user. But it didn't come without it's obstacles.
One of the important things is we needed to push important news out right to the front of the company. The problem, is that we have several different structures to the company. We have branch staff, regional managers, supervisors, management... we needed to give information to everyone, while also having the option to only allow certain people to see certain things. That's where the MyBB permissions come in...
The News System (Front screen - Forum backend) pulls information out of MyBB on a forum-permission basis. For example, only regional managers can see news for regional managers. This gives us the perfect platform to get the latest news out to the right people in our company. We also like to keep our people up to date with what's happening in the world too - using the RSS2Post plugin from DennisTT, we pull the latest information out of the BBC News website.
We also display news articles in full BB glory, with help from class_parser of course (Test article). We also use the attachment system (to be able to provide files per article) and related items system of MyBB in the news system, so that our people can access relevant information quickly.
One of the other important aspects of our Intranet has to be able to give our branches the most up to date information from our suppliers, and from us! Using MyBB's attachments system (Front screen - Forum backend), we can provide an archive of information that is easily maintained and easily accessed (Intranet view - Forum view). Using multiple jQuery applications, dynamic information is easily shown (File Information - Picture Slideshow).
As most of our branches run on Citrix servers, many can't access Windows search to find documents. So, we use MyBB's search functions to be able to find the things we're looking for (screenshot).
One of the other problems we face is having difficulty in finding people, where they are in the country and which branch they are in. For this, we modified the member search in MyBB (screenshot) to be able to find them by Region, Branch, Department and Name. These fields are custom profile fields joined into the normal search functions MyBB has.
I also included a Location Finder (screenshot) which will find the nearest branches to a user's search (they can enter city, major town or county in Britain). When a branch is viewed, the contact information for that branch is displayed (screenshot).
As well as implementing the messaging system (so only certain people can send messages, but everyone can receive), we have also used the Calendar feature in MyBB to help display the future events in the company, audits, stock takes and other helpful information (such as bank holidays).
We also have a customized "comments" system inbuilt so that people can leave their comments regarding different topics. For example, we can post an article about new changes to the company, and people can "reply" to them by posting - but via a webpage instead of the forum. It was important that only the people who will be posting articles and maintaining the Intranet can access the forum - everyone else is blocked from the forum index, and several other parts.
Working with out IT department, Windows Active Directory has also been integrated into the login system. This is so that people only need one login to remember across the company. We also changed the Profile pages (screenshot) so it is easier to view information about the people in the company. Utilizing the custom profile fields, we were able to make the integrated login with WAC easier. For example, my full name, short name, department, based at, region and contact information are all custom profile fields. This is so I can login under "tmoore", but still see my name everywhere!
It isn't completely finished, and there's still lots of changes I'll be making to our system, but the ways MyBB can be extended are helping to make a massive difference in our company. Hopefully this shows that MyBB can be used extensively in a website...
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