I have never used a (content management system) CMS before but I need one for my internship as a webdeveloper.

Requirements: runs on Apache, linux or unix, MySQL and PHP (maybe Windows server and IIS)

Authentication (not sure yet): existing user database, LDAP or permissions on filesystem (not sure if that last one is possible)

Purpose: scientist working on projects should be able to upload their files (wide variety of types of files) to a central server. The file is described by a lot of metadata based on the datatype (data described in the file) and project (this part will probably have to be programmed and added to the CMS). The uploaded file can be private (only owner has access) (owner), shared read or read/write with projectmembers (group) or public (world). Each project must have a superuser who can access all data of project.
There are serveral projects. A scientist can participate in more then one project. Some things sound like a document management system, I know of this only by name.

Other: probably available in a CMS. Able to display public information, to display information related to project(s) once someone has logged in, RSS feed, maybe being able to add comment on uploaded files of other projectmembers, blog per project, personal information about scientist, storing previous versions of files (no requirement for project, they keep daily backups).

Currently files are stored in directories. Permissions are for owner, group and world. But number of projects and number of people using it are increasing. It is only for projects in progress. Once projects are finished they are moved to a different database.

I don't have that much time for this project (6-7 weeks), to make prototype, must make analyses and design first and try to find someone to squeeze out all the requirements. I would like to limit the choice of a CMS (or DMS) to 1 (maybe 2). Joomla probably will not qualify if authentication will make use of LDAP or existing DB. The use of assigning people to more then one project probably will exclude Joomla too. Maybe XOOPS or Drupal are a better choice and there are probably dozens of other opensource CMS. But I don't want to spend too much time trying them all out. Can I use XOOPS for this ?

Another requirement: good information (manual, howto, examples) available.

Thanx,

PugiM

Would say yes, there are a lot of systems for project management...to do most of that..we have quite a few sub developer sites running like that, across the web....with that sort of modules (I think to have most of it ready like you are asking for)....not had a good look at what these systems do in depth...yet one of us will be able to advise to which modules...

Xoops is an excellent document management system! compared to others you mentioned
Which are known to be hard to use for developing documents within...