The Joomla community has developed only a couple of download extensions that will track who downloads what to even a minimal degree. DOCman is one of those extensions. If you need to log user info in relation to downloads, it's worth checking out.

That said, I recently decided to try DOCman again, after running into an inexplicable bug for Remository---and I was still disappointed.

The default layout is very visually clunky and often run against hierarchical formatting concepts and the notion that important things (like document titles) should be more visible than descriptions and other subordinate elements.
DOCman does not allow you to post abstracts, in addition to full descriptions. Full descriptions appear everywhere.
The way DOCman handles downloads that you want everyone to be able to view, but only registered users to be able to get, is awkward at best (a big flaw IMHO).
The one-description-to-rule-them-all limitation makes the implicit process flow and navigation both complex and odd. There's no purpose to a details page, for example, that shows no more details than the doc-list page. Meanwhile, a preview button only available on the full-details page launches an empty preview lightbox unless your download is an image, then the download dialog just pops up on top of it. On the description page, the doc title doesn't launch the download; only the little download button way at the bottom of the page does. These are just a few of DOCman's quirks.


Ultimately, we found Docman to be unsuitable for purpose. To end up with a reasonably scannable list of downloads and intuitive information flow would have required not only significant css edits, but core code hacks, as well.

While DOCman might be the best available extension for download management, its limitations highlight the generally not-yet-ready-for-prime-time nature of this category of extensions.

Bottom line: this is the absolute best product for downloads in Joomla - so long as you're running a 1.0.x site. Unfortunately, it's also the best for 1.5 sites - 'unfortunate' because while it's still the best of the available solutions, it won't run in native mode.

I have long been a fan of docman, because very few of the other available extensions combine the features and ease of use in this extension.

However, it is not compatible with Joomla! 1.5 native; that, to me, makes it far less attractive, especially for new site development, which I am trying to do exclusively in native mode. There are comments by the developers on the docman website to the effect that "legacy mode is just as good as native mode" - if that is so, why is there a native mode at all?

There are also comments on the website that there is a native version in the works. Unfortunately, it's been "in the works" for nearly two years; I'm probably not the only one who is becomming tired of "all show, no go" as far as 1.5 native compatibility. Hence the title of my review.

Promoting DOCman as a searchable database of arts & cultural documents, any implementation for commercial/customised use of DOCman requires editing the default template. It will be great to see this extension develop more advanced search capabilities, template editing and a flexible back end (easier custom fields adding).

I installed Docman and have been trying to get the group email notification option to work for a couple of hours. It's there in the configuration, but the tool tip makes no sense. After a little research I discovered that the tool tip refers to another setting that has been removed in this version. Maybe the developer just forgot to remove the radio button. It doesn't work, so thought I'd save others the time I wasted. There is a plugin that will notify the webmaster or uploads, but it's not at all the same thing as group notification. Otherwise looks like a good extension.

If your considering a download Manager for Joomla then this is a good choice.
Allowing user uploads and with the DOCman extentions you can add multiple files you have already placed on your website.
Or add files from a remote location, it makes populating your Joomla a breeze.
Drawbacks:
A few of the Essential DOCman extentions do not work as expected
I have seen very few replies on the support forums about the critical issues within them.
That said, I belive this component will overpower the rest once the mods are fine tuned.

anybody knows how to move the file/s in another category within DOCMAN? i've uploaded 100s of file and trying to figure out the best way to move to another category.

any help or suggestion will me much appreciated

This was a great addition to our Joomla Web site and keeps all of our documents (PDF's Word, Excel, etc) together in one place categorized into folders and makes it EASY for our customers to find what they are looking for. Thanks!

Why do I rate a legacy component to 5 stars? Its easy because it is the only DMS for the Joomla CMS. There are a lot of very good download components for both J!1.x and J!1.5, but if you need a well written document management system with user access control and document check-out / check-in, there is only Docman. I use it since J!1.x and on most of my J!1.5 sites and never felt in trouble. It is easy to extend. For example on the site users can build icc profiles online and are getting the results automatically in their private Docman download area. Thanks a lot for docman and a look forward for the upcoming native versions. Please take the time you need to make it solid as docman has been in the past.

DocMAN is the best you can get for Joomla 1.0 series. On Joomla 1.5 it sucks a bit. It sucks, because you are forced to use legacy mode in order to run it. It sucks, because the last version is nearly one year old and still not in stable state. It sucks because of it's strange requirements for permissions on the joomla root folder.

On the other hand it has some nice features. A lean (but "seen everywhere") out-of-the-box-design and a good rights management system

But with a look on the slow (not to say nothing-goes) development progress, i ask myself, if this project is still alive or if docman is the "dead-man-walking" in this category of the extension repository.

After reviewing the latest RC, i decided to uninstall it and test other components, because i don't have a good feeling with this project. We'll see... If something moves forward, i will have again have a look on it.

I found this to be a good extension but somewhat limited. Some features I have seen in other file repositories but that are lacking here are:
- some kind of rating system
- the ability to add extra fields in the document details and be able to search by these fields. Currently you can only search by document name and description. Would be nice to be able to search by filename, username, or any custom field.

This component is _GREAT_
Are you using Joomla? Don't have DocMan.. So you don't have a website! or you are not using it.
Docman is one of the most useful components I have on my sites, and can be put at use in so many ways that cannot be counted.
Please, keep on this Excellent Great Work.

Yep... Excellent component!!! But I need it to be Native 1.5. Maybe this will stop the ''Invalid Token'' Error message I always get in the backend if I try to create a new document and sometime in the frontend.

This is the one of the most useful extension discovered.

While there are some teething problem in windows environment with wamp. However this goes excellent with linux and xampp! Thank you developers.

Went through the whole selection of "Download components" and this one is definitely the one with the most features an on the other hand is very! easy to use, which is usually a hard mix ;p

Absolutely brilliant extension. Definitely should be an editor's pick. Made my life lot easier. Thank you very very much for this wonderful extension. Keep it up.

I was looking for way to have private web pages, and this allowed me to do this with ease. Thanks!

Ken Baehr

Excellent Extension, a staple in all of my joomla sites!! Kudos to the developers.

I feel this should be mentioned here. PDFs and DOCs can be indexed and searched within DOCman documents. Please read my revived for PDF Indexer and do the necessary. Read my review at (http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,741/Itemid,35/#rev-29929)

Very good extention, it works very well.

It will be more perfect if following features can be supported:
1. Rating
2. Write review

Came up with an error asking to make the root writeable, which is just not acceptable.