IntraNetics' tag line is The Simplest Way to Build Your Intranet, and there is truth in that advertisement. We installed our version on a Compaq Proliant 2500 server running NT 4.0 (sp4) and Netscape Enterprise Server. While the package will run with 64 MB of RAM, IntraNetics (and we) recommend 128 MB, which our server had. Clients require a 4.x release of the Netscape or Microsoft web browser. For our tests, we used Netscape Communicator 4.08 and 4.5.

After a couple of false starts we installed the software and configured it to use Microsoft SQL Server 6.5. IntraNetics apparently tests their products primarily with IIS, as their documentation for Netscape Enterprise Server contains a few obvious mistakes, such as trying to name three different virtual directories with the same alias. The problems are minor, however, and experienced users of Netscape servers will prevail.. (IIS users should have no installation problems.) In the future we expect IntraNetics to ship the needed errata in their release notes.

While SQL Server is the product's back end of choice, for very small workgroups, IntraNetics can run with Microsoft Access as its database. This is a welcome sign for those on a limited budget or with a minimum configuration of RAM and CPU horsepower.

Glitches aside, a 1st-time install should take about 30 minutes - not bad for an intranet with twenty applications! Meeting the boss' demand to build an Intranet before lunch will help anyone's career.

Getting Started

IntraNetics is set up as a collection of applications grouped into logical categories such as people, places, and things. The first thing you'll need to do after installing the product is to select and customize an appropriate set of applications to fit your corporate Intranet needs. Administrators can enable as much or little of the total package as they wish. This is great news for new administrators, who will want to start with a small group of core applications, then add new functionality as their experience grows and interest in the Intranet builds.

Next, you'll need to assign user permissions. The IntraNetics Administrator (defined during the installation process) has sole power to delegate management tasks. In larger organizations you may want to make that user ID a group login for any Intranet administrator to use. The administrator signs up new users in the Employees application. Each employee can then be given rights to applications as a user, moderator, or designer. As you might expect, moderators can edit content in each application, while designers can change the application's look and feel.

Basic users may find the personalization options rather thin. The startup page offers users a menu of applications and list of favorite links. Users can edit the favorites list, but only to the extent of including or excluding the predefined choices.

Adding users is as simple as accessing the Employee application and filling in the blanks. Note on the screen shot at right that you can use custom graphics to tailor IntraNetics to your company's style guidelines, as we did with our teal "Kettering K" logo.

Other customization options include adding new departments, adding or deleting applications or attributes within applications, adding a custom start page, tailoring the appearance of frames, and more. Each application can be customized individually or with attributes set from the administration application.

Every application can be modified with the exception of the Services and Links applications. We found this a bit disappointing, as users are locked into a fairly small set of choices when it would have been relatively easy to allow users to either import their bookmark/favorites file or create new ones within the IntraNetics framework.

The final way to customize IntraNetics is to add your own application. Existing applications in IntraNetics can be used as templates for creating new ones. We created a Classified Ads application by using the existing Events application, changing the pre-fab event categories to more appropriate item categories. Within minutes, our custom application was ready to go.

The line-up

Table 1 shows the complete IntraNetics feature set. Items in green are applications hosted or coordinated with other companies. These usually require a separate setup and customization procedure outside of the IntraNetics configuration. More about these third-party portals later.

Note that applications can be "published" to your public Internet site as well as hosted inside the firewall. As a result, you can, for example, display available jobs on your external website as well as internally.

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The Authors

Brett Kottmann is a senior web developer at Kettering Medical Center (KMC) and frequent contributor to Intranet Design. Bill Perry is an analyst at KMC.