Plone Content Management Essentials

Description:

Plone, an open source technology for Web and content publishing that is built on the powerful and free Zope Application server. Plone requires minimal effort to set up, flexible, and allows for the facilitation of content creation, publication and retrieval of content on large and complex Web sites. It does this through built-in tools and through a customizable and highly usable interface. To use Plone you don¿t need to learn anything about Zope, but a small amount of knowledge of Zope is helpful. Nasa uses Plone for their WITS project and Plone also powers their extremely popular ¿Mars Rover¿ Web site.

Author Julie Meloni, employs Plone on a daily basis in her work. In Plone Web Development, Julie writes a practical application-oriented guide to building content-intensive Web sites and portals with the Zope-based Plone package.

Table of Contents:

Introduction.

1. Introduction to Plone and Content Management.

    Plone Basics.

      Underlying Architecture of Plone.

      When to Use Plone.

      Examples of Plone in Use.

    Why a Content-Management System?

      Features of a Content-Management System.

    Anatomy of a Plone Site.

      Plone Slots.

    Troubleshooting.

    Summary.

2. Installing Plone.

    Plone User Roles.

      The Manager Role.

      The Member Role.

      Workflow Roles.

    Installation and Access Requirements.

    Obtaining Plone.

    Installing Plone.

      Installing on Windows.

      Installing on Mac OS X.

      Installing on Linux/Unix.

      Upgrading Plone.

    Where Do We Go from Here?

    Troubleshooting.

    Summary.

3. Using Your New Plone Site.

    Joining a Plone Site.

      Logging In.

      The Member Home Page.

      The Member Folder.

      User Preferences.

      Undo.

    Working with Content in Plone.

      Creating and Modifying Documents.

      Adding and Modifying Events and News.

      Adding and Editing Files.

      Adding and Editing Other Content Types.

    Publishing Content in Plone.

    Utilizing the Content Discussion Feature.

    Searching Content.

      Using Advanced Search.

    Troubleshooting.

    Summary.

4. Additional Plone Elements.

    Using the CMF Collective.

    Working with CMFBoard.

      Installing CMFBoard.

      Creating a CMFBoard Forum.

      Setting Up ForumNBs.

      Adding Topics and Posts.

      Member Preferences for CMFBoard.

      Additional CMFBoard Information.

    Working with CMFMessage and CMFUserTrackTool.

      Installing CMFMessage and CMFUserTrackTool.

      Viewing the CMFMessage and CMFUserTrackTool Slots.

      Sending an Instant Message.

      Taking Action After Receiving an Instant Message.

    Working with CMFPhoto and CMFPhotoAlbum.

      Installing CMFPhoto and CMFPhotoAlbum.

      Creating a Photo Album with CMFPhotoAlbum.

      Adding Photos to a Photo Album.

      The End-User View of a Photo Album.

    Working with SimpleBlog.

      Installing CMFWeblog.

      Adding a Blog Folder.

      Adding a Blog Entry.

      Publishing Your Blog Entries.

      Additional SimpleBlog Configuration.

    Working with Wikis.

      Installing Zwiki.

      Wiki Basics.

      Working with Your Zwiki Wiki.

    Troubleshooting.

    Summary.

5. Customizing Plone.

    Working with Standard Slots.

      Changing the Location of Slots.

      Modifying the Visibility of Standard Slots.

      Making Slots Visible to Members Only.

    Creating and Maintaining Custom Slots.

    Customizing Tabs and Graphics.

      Changing the Tabs.

      Customizing Logos and Other Images.

    Internationalization and Localization of Your Plone Site.

      Localizing Your Plone Site.

      International Character Sets.

    Troubleshooting.

    Summary.

6. Creating and Implementing a Custom Skin.

    What’s a Skin?

    Elements of a Plone Skin.

      Preparing to Use a Custom Skin.

    Working with the Plone Base Properties File.

    Working with the Plone Style Sheet.

      Quick Style Sheet Primer.

      Structure of the Plone Style Sheet.

    Pulling It All Together.

      Define Your Goals.

      Developing the Overall Site Architecture.

      Determine Your Navigational Elements.

      Developing the Look and Feel.

      Fitting the Pieces Together.

      Plone Customization Example.

    Troubleshooting.

    Summary.

7. Additional Content-Related Techniques.

    Working with Plone Page Templates.

      The Zope Template Language.

      Working with Existing Templates.

      Creating a New Plone Template.

    Implementing Content Syndication.

      How RSS Works.

      Syndicating a Plone Folder.

    Creating and Using New Content Types.

      Customizing the New Content Type.

      Other Methods for Adding Content Types.

    Troubleshooting.

    Summary.

8. Technical Administration.

    Basic Plone Administration.

      The Plone Setup Screen.

    Backing Up Your Plone Site.

    Caching Elements in Plone.

      ZODB Caching.

      Additional Cache Managers.

    Using Plone with Other Applications.

      Zope Virtual Hosts.

      Running Plone with Apache.

      Running Plone with Microsoft IIS.

    Troubleshooting.

    Summary.

Appendix A: Using Python for Greater Customization.

    Getting Started with Python.

      Working with the Interpreter.

      Working with Strings.

      Working with Lists.

      Operator Overview.

      Basic Flow Control in Python.

      File Access with Python.

      Defining Your Own Functions and Modules in Python.

      What’s in the Standard Library?

    More Information.

Appendix B: Introduction to Zope and the ZMI.

    Fun with Application Servers.

    The Zope Framework.

      The Components of the Zope Framework.

    Zope and Objects.

      The Basics About Objects.

      Publishing and Managing Objects.

    The Zope Management Interface (ZMI).

      The ZMI Navigator Frame.

      The ZMI Workspace Frame.

      The Status Frame.

      Working with Objects in the ZMI.

      Undoing Actions.

      Object History.

    Where to Find More Information.

Index