“Lore” Knowledge Base/FAQ software

In searching for a solution for a web-based resource catalog, I happened upon ““Lore”, a web application by Pineapple Technologies. Based on php/mysql, Lore is easy to set up, and has great support.

After testing Lore for a while, I found that it is wasn’t quite right for my original intended use, because I needed a more complex category scheme than it can create. I needed to be able to restrict searches by 4 major vocabularies, with terms and subterms. So instead of using it as a resource catalog, I am now using it to classify my finished projects, and will be using it for a FAQ for the catalog site also.

I finally settled on Drupal for the resource catalog system, but it has many more bugs than Lore – Drupal is very much in development still.

Lore is not free (I think it now costs $85.00) but it comes with very active support, and they will absolutely make sure you are up and running. They are also very responsive to suggestions.

One of the chief advantages of Lore over the many free scripts that are available is that it has a slick, well thought out interface and administration section, which most of others do not. It looks businesslike, and it works.