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Digital Asset/Project Management Solutions for Mac OS X?

Posted by Cliff on from the digital-office-assistants dept.

anwnn asks: "I'm looking for a complete digital asset and project management solution for my employer. My ideal solution would be something web-based, eliminating the cross-platform problem. I work in a Mac OS X based shop, with a few PCs sprinkled here and there. We need complete digital asset management, time tracking, project costing, expensing, and accounting. They're currently looking at a solution from Meta Communications, and my main problem with them is that they claim Mac OS X support, but in reality it's Mac OS, with Mac OS X support only via Classic. Ideally, I'd like to run something on the currently installed Mac OS X server, utilizing it's capabilities for Open Source solutions. What all is out there?"

20 comments

  1. Have you tried... by arcadum · · Score: 5, Informative
    these viable solutions? Digital Asset Management added to JobOrder

    MediaBin Project Manager

    http://www.jobmanager.com/

    Or even, Zenark 2: Digital Asset Management

  2. Open Source Digital Asset Management by Hungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How hard would it be to write one? Depending on the size PHP and mySQL would work fine. Or how about looking on Sourceforge and doing a search for "Asset" This turned up a number of mature projects that do what you seem to need.

    --
    Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
    1. Re:Open Source Digital Asset Management by tolldog · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No it didn't.

      I found one asset tracking program that was higher than beta. And it was an IT tracking system. Not digital asset management. True many results were returned, but most were in the beta stage or were in planning.

      -Tim

      --
      -I just work here... how am I supposed to know?
    2. Re:Open Source Digital Asset Management by jub · · Score: 1

      I've been doing this very search for our graphic design department for some time now. We're trying to replace a uselessly old copy of MediaManager (published at the time by Imation, now abandoned).

      We looked at packages like Canto Cumulus (as others have noted), and they're very nice, but very expensive. We're looking at a no-budget situation, plus we want multiple editors to have access to images for research, which would greatly add to the number of users we'd have to pay for under a program like Cumulus.

      Our conclusion was to write our own web-based program, as there is nothing that currently does what we need. The closest i found is the scientific image database, which handles the multiple file types (tiff, eps, pdf) that we use in the print environment. All other packages that seem to do asset management are really photo gallery packages only designed to handle jpegs and very simple meta data.

      So, we'll be writing one, using PHP and either mysql or ms sql server (gotta use what we have...).

  3. I use.... by Korgan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Tutos for project management and basic CRM. It also kinda crosses over into an ERP application as well.

    Tutos does product and project management, client management (with the ability to attach almost anything to a client and break it down into departments and more) and a whole heap of other things.

    Best of all, its built using PHP on MySQL and Apache with *the only* (sic) free software license (GPL 2). I run it on Linux but I doubt you'll have trouble getting it to run on MacOS X.

    You'll find it at http://www.tutos.org along with some pretty decent info including full documentation, a demo, screen shots and more. It is fully web based.

  4. have you tried glonz.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    check out at www.glonz.com! it runs really great under mac os x and is much more than only project management.

    1. Re:have you tried glonz.com by brotherash · · Score: 1

      Project management? Maybe I'm missing something that the German version has but the very little information that is given in English doesn't indicate any project management related features. This is a phone/web based PIM with no business model like the dozen or so that were started in the U.S. a year or two back and eventually went under.

  5. Check out MacSlash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not sure if you know this but this was posted a few weeks ago on Macslash - it's /. but only better (please be gentle...)

    http://www.macslash.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/24/ 14 17207&mode=thread

  6. great DAM server application by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I suggest that you look into MediaBin.

    The user client is web-based and I believe can run on OSX. They sent us screen shots of it running on IE in OSX. We haven't made the switch because Quark is not on OSX yet.

    They also have a great technical partnership with Adobe.

    www.mediabin.com

  7. Custom, custom, custom. by The+Mainframe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Asset management... not very hard to write, code wise. IMHO, I would think that your best option would be to hire a coder to write your web-based software for you. You're looking at a couple grand or more, depending on who you hire, but it'll be exactly what you want. I'm thinking PHP... MySQL... Apache...
    This is, of course, a shameless plug for myself.

    --
    --Bennett Prescott
    Former Lord Of Packets
  8. MediaBeacon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I am a systems engineer for a large prepress shop. The software we use (and the best DAM software I have ever seen) is web based and called MediaBeacon, built by Brightech Consulting based in Minneapolis, MN.

    One of the best features is that it keeps your filesystem syncronized with the web side automatically. NO need to import assets manually. It also has a full archive solution and it can write to automated CD burners over the network, so you can burn your assets directly to CD over the web. It will also print the thumbnails and other info on the front of the CD.

    The server software runs on Solaris, Linux, Windoze, and Mac OS X. It's fast as hell and integrates with OPI software like Xinet and Helios if you need that.

    I highly recommend checking the product out beyond just visiting their website.

  9. Not hard? HAH! by kwerle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can't believe all the folks saying that this is 'not hard to do'. As with most things, it's not hard to throw together some crap, but to do a really good job is a lot of work and planning.

    It's not open source, but I used to work for a place that provided DRM software - all web based:

    WebWare

    It is currently WebObjects based, but I understand they're moving to J2EE.

  10. Web-based is nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    How about this? http://www.oraclesmallbusiness.com

    I'm not sure if that's exactly what you're looking for, but it seems to have all the features you want. It's Web-based, cross-platform, accounting/asset management/job tracking/job costing stuff.

    I tried the demo, and it seemed to be quite nice. My boss didn't like the off-site storage though. He's a luddite. Stupid non-techies... grumble, grumble... ;)

  11. Cumulus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I recomend cumulus from Canto.com. It is one of the best around - supports single user, workgroup & enterprise. Even if you do have the technical skill to write your own, you may not be aware of what is involved. There are about 100 formats cumulus reads, and it can write back to formats with meta data written in the viewer program. There are a series of java classes released by cumulus should you want to create your own viewer.

  12. Asset Management by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Xinet makes a great product called WebNative, that runs on OS X, Solaris, IRIX, Linux, and Winblows2K. Web based (apache), and has an integrated MySQL Dbase called Venture. Very slick, great support, around 10K for license I think? Worth a look.
    www.xinet.com

    We've been using it for a few years now, and love it.

    - Kevin McDonald

  13. Thanks. by anwnn · · Score: 1

    While it may have garnered only 17 or so comments, many of them were quite informative. I thank you all, as I now have some good leads to go on to my employer with, to backup my dislike for Meta Communications.

    1. Re:Thanks. by jayrtfm · · Score: 1

      also check out www.wavecorp.com's MediaBank.
      If they've cleared up some of the bugs left over from previous owners, it may be a good contender. The version control was nice. A few years ago their only backup system was Legato, which was a bit kludgey (for example, Legato can return an error that the archive DID NOT complete sucessfully, which MediaBank ignored, so it did its default action of deleting what had been archived)

      I've heard very good things about the Xinet solution. They're a great company to work with, very responsive to problems. (which are rare)

      another one to check is http://www.artesia.com/teams_overview.html

      Why do you dislike MetaCommunications?

      One important thing about DAM is that the users *WILL NOT* voluntairily change their workflow, and will not follow guidelines on folder naming, adding notes etc. Even if the new way with the DAM is better/faster, a lot of users won't want to switch. You have to come up with ways that make it difficult to bypass your system. For example, users will move or add/delete files using the Finder rather than the DAM, causing the DAM to lose sync with the filesystem. Mediabank had the option to access files directly thru TCP/IP, so that the server volumes did not have to be mounted.

      Lastly, do a beta test. Also try some disaster senarios. Dead Drives, viruses deleting jpgs, corrupt database, drives filling to 100%, loss of ethernet switch while client has open files, etc. Yes, I've had to deal with all of these :-(

  14. Asset management solution by Peteski · · Score: 1

    You could try NXNs' AlienBrain, it is a total solution for Digital content. It has clients for Mac/Windows/Linux. I use it to manage a 3D animaion studio's content. www.nxn-software.com/