Can we build an Intranet Application !!!

[Student]

I am a student at the last semester of Computer sciences and Information Technology College at King Abdulaziz University / Saudi Arabia .. at this semester we must build the graduated project ,,
My team -5 members - suggest to develop an Intranet Application (a small privet network) .So I want to get your opinions Can we build it at three months? Also I need to guide me Where can we get more information about intranet since we have a little background about it..
How we should start?!
What are the possible applications that we can think at?
What are the programming languages and database we need?! and What is the difference between the development of the website and intranet applications since we built a website by (HTML ,PHP and Java script )

Please I need your help .. thanks too much

[rabie_akela]

See responses below:

Can we build it at three months?
Yes, you can. As long as you have set goals for your project. I suggest you go for simple and small businesses which in turn reflects a small and simple intranet. You will need to have good web design skills, database skills and some networking knowledge.

From what I see, you need to further research and know more about the intranet. Simply speaking, an intranet is a private web-based portal that supports self-service and collaboration using a seamless user-freindly interface. It also uses the same technology as the internet. The key difference is that the intranet is private.

How we should start?
Use IIS Server, Dreamweaver, MS Access DB and ASP. IIS Server comes with Windows Professional. Setting and installing an IIS server on your computer is found all over the internet. You can place all your web-pages and files on the IIS server under Inetpub + wwwroot. Dreamweaver will help you develop the webpages. The MS Access DB will hold all the data you need. You can access the database tables and queries directly from a webpage using dynamic webpages. I prefer ASP (Active Server Pages) which allows you to easily establish a connection with a DB and retrieve records and data sets. You will need to define a DSN for the DB and create ODBC in order to retrieve data - search the internet to know how.

What are the possible applications that we can think at?
The intranet offers unlimited opportunities for the organisation. I developed several applications for my company most of which became necessary to complete daily tasks and support decision making. Since you are a starter, I suggest you think simple. Some of the applications that I suggest you go for: (a) contacts page; (b) products information; (c) useful documents and applications; etc. If you are an advanced programmer, you might want to develop a group calendar, discussion board, user authentication (login and password), search engine, etc.

Also, try to install all your pages on one computer (which will act like a server). All other computers can access the intranet website using a local domain. So when it comes to demonstrating your project, anyone with a computer on the same network can access the intranet website.

Regards,
M Rabie M AKELA

[Student]

thank you M Rabie for this basic information really I found what I need , I think you are expert at this domain , I want to ask you can I use PHP instead of ASP ?
am I need java script for same tasks eg: form verification ,OR Dream weaver can do that ?

[JPnyc]

You can use any serverside language you like, assuming your host supports it.