Hi all,
I'm at NGI Sweden, a genomics facility primarily for Swedish academics. We have a Drupal-based system for our users to describe and submit their sequencing orders to us.
For various reasons, we are looking for alternatives, and I was wondering if anyone has ideas or suggestions.
Our wish list for the system:
- Allow a user to submit an order, and to view his/her previous orders.
- Allow approx 1,500 users, 500 projects per year, 6 coordinators, 3 sites (current numbers, will increase).
- The order may be very complex, requiring hierarchical choices (e.g. if technology X, then library prep Y, then analysis Z).
- An order may have to be created in increments, saving it between sessions.
- Have a proper API, both for read and write, e.g. for updating the state of order using info from the lab.
- Allow non-programmers to modify the forms data, e.g. which library prep protocols are available, etc.
- Allow any kind of change of the form fields, without screwing up previously submitted forms.
- Possible to run several different instances of the portal (for different platforms) which are completely distinct, except for the user accounts, which should be common.
We have looked at various Cloud-based form tools such as http://www.formassembly.com/ , but apart from several technical shortcomings, we have a problem in that our data may have to reside on in-house servers due to policy.
There are many reasons why our current Drupal solution is not optimal. One is that changing the form fields is non-trivial, and it is sometimes hard to remove options, due to backwards-compatibility issues. There are other things which make us dislike Drupal, and although it works, we wish to find something better.
Are there any good Open-Source systems for this? Or how do people solve this problem?
Yours,
Per Kraulis
I'm moving this to the forum, though if someone disagrees they should feel encouraged to move it back to questions!