Plone

An overview

Background

Using and developing with Plone for about two and half yearsDevelop with other python web technologiesWork at Wildcard Corp

What I'll be talking about

AreasWhat it isWhat can it doWho uses itDeploymentShould I use it?

Background

Open sourceContent Management System(interprise level)PythonGPL2Trademark owned by foundationVery friendly to contributorsFriendly and helpful communityZODB object database(before NOSQL was cool)

Installation

Download package from plone.orgRun the installerComes with built-in webserver

Run./bin/instance start Or./bin/instance fg # foreground mode

Uses buildout for installing packages and managing configuration settings./bin/buildout

Intuitive Interface

co-founded by Alexander Limi, usability expert for Mozilla

Hierarchal content management

Content decides the url structure of your site and navigation is automatically generated for you.

Search-ability/Usability 

Google indexes Plone pages very wellBuilt-in live searchIndexes doc, pdf, etc

Internationalization

Has support for over 200 languagesDiverse community of developers and contributors across the world.Popular in Europe, South America and Japan

Advanced workflow system

Tied in with it's fine grained permissions model, it makes it very easy to control document flow and access on your site.Also, provides a TTW(through the web) tool to manage custom workflows

Content rules

Allow you to do actions when different things are done on the site.

Eventscontent created/edited/deletedworkflow changed

Actionssend emailslognotify usermove, delete, transition

Form creation

Powerful framework for building forms TTW.

Versioning support

Built-in support for versioning of content

Security track record

Best track record of any open source CMSUsed by many government agencies because of it's track record

Who uses it?

Government: FBI, CIA, NASA, Brazilian Government, others...Universities: UW Oshkosh, Penn State, Washington State, North Carolina, Utah, etcYale and MIT Open coursewareNon-profits: Amnesty international, OxfamOthers: Free Software Foundation, Novell Inc, Nokia(QT), EngageMedia, Discover Magazine, Connexions, Chicago History MuseumAlso often used for intranetsSource: http://plone.org/support/sites

Deployment

Not your typical php deployment...Requires long running python processScalable--easy to use multiple clients that connect back to the database serverCPU/Memory heavyTypically use nginx with load balancer and/or caching proxy in front to balance traffic between client processesSupport for integration with varnish and squid with automatic purge requestsbuildout provides a mechanism to version control your configuration so development can easily mirror deployment

Who is it for?

if you're thinking about using it for your blog, you're probably better off just using wordpress...many different content editorscomplex workflow needsfine grained permission management requirementsvery useful for intranets

Thanks for listening...    

Presented by:Nathan Van Gheem

www.nathanvangheem.com