Playing with Blocks: 6 Pro Tips for Building Your Next Super-Charged Plone Site

While there is much to be said for the convenience of being able to work with a single tool, oftentimes it is better to look at a best-of-breed approach to technology. Plone relies on open standards, which enable the “gluing together” of disparate platforms. Six Feet Up has successfully architected and deployed solutions that tie best-of-breed products together while keeping things simple to manage and analyze. In this talk, Six Feet Up CTO Calvin Hendryx-Parker will use recent deployments as examples to demonstrate the power of Plone combined with other tools, such as the Moin Moin wiki, Vanilla Forum, Open ID authentication, WordPress blog, Solr search engine, etc. Come and learn pro tips that will help you in your next integration project.

Transcript

1. Playing with Blocks: 6 Pro Tips for Building Your Next Super-Charged Plone Site Calvin Hendryx-Parker, CTO Plone Conference 2012
2. #PloneConf We love Plone!
3. #PloneConf • Workflow • WYSIWYG tools for editing • WebDAV and FTP built in for managing content • Collections • Versioning, Staging and Locking • Support for Word and PDF document indexing Does so many things for us
4. #PloneConf • Application Security Track Record • Fine grained Security Permissions We sleep soundly at night with Plone
5. #PloneConf • Make a great impression • SEO • Not just bolted on #1: Use APIs vs embedded iframes
6. #PloneConf EBSCO Content Integration
7. #PloneConf SEO Hell
8. #PloneConf Integration Bliss
10. #PloneConf WordPress Blog and ZenPhoto
12. #PloneConf • Version control • Mailing list • Last release • Size of community #2: Criteria for Evaluating Your Options
13. #PloneConf Spam Takeover?
14. #PloneConf Mailing List Neglect
15. #PloneConf Anyone Home?
16. #PloneConf Activity?
17. #PloneConf Questionable Roadmap
18. #PloneConf Corporate Takeover
19. #PloneConf Hope
20. #PloneConf #3: Leverage SSO and centralized Authentication
21. #PloneConf • SAML • OpenID • OAuth • Mozilla Personas (BrowserID) Web SSO
22. #PloneConf • Pre-existing OpenID Authentication • Plone CMS • Moin Moin Wiki • Vanilla Forum Real World Usage
24. #PloneConf #4: Supercharge your search with Solr
25. #PloneConf • Java Based • Full-Text Search • Web Services API • Standards Based Interfaces • Scalable • XML Configuration • Extensible What is Solr?
26. #PloneConf • ZCatalog Index • Doesn't depend on Plone • Utilizes new foreign_connections Connection Method • Pass through Solr Queries • Direct access to the Solr Response SolrIndex
27. #PloneConf Spelling
29. #PloneConf External Content
31. #PloneConf import MoinMoin.events as ev def handle(event): if isinstance(event, ev.PageRenamedEvent): handle_renamed(event) elif isinstance(event, ev.PageRevertedEvent): handle_reverted(event) elif isinstance(event, (ev.PageChangedEvent, ev.PageCopiedEvent, ev.TrivialPageChangedEvent)): handle_changed(event) elif isinstance(event, ev.PageDeletedEvent): handle_deleted(event)
32. #PloneConf class IFakeBrainView(Interface): """Utility methods for updating the Wiki fake brains. """ def getFakeBrainId(url): """Generate an id based on the provided URL. The id is always the same for an item. """ def updateFakeBrain(type, title, description, date, url): """Parameters: * Content type * Title * Description * Date * URL to the item Grab the id of the item using getFakeBrainId. If the item already exists, we update it, otherwise we create it. """ def deleteFakeBrain(id): """Given an item id, delete it from the catalog.""" def processUpdate(): """Accept a POST and dispatch appropriately."""
33. #PloneConf • Can replace several ZCatalog indexes • Remove any indexes you have replaced • Use it for all Text Indexes • Still Utilize the ZCatalog Indexes for Everything Else Solr Tips
34. #PloneConf Pro Tip #5: Beware of Over Customization
35. #PloneConf The story of KARL 1.0 • Xapian • Windows • Tasty Tags • Deliverance
36. #PloneConf Rosetta Project • Wasn't really a CMS • Semantic Web Application • Abused Zope and Plone
37. #PloneConf • PubMed unicode data coming back for SFARI • Data you get today may be fine, but what happens months down the road • Make sure to test what you think Plone will do • Mock External Dependancies #6: Testing, Testing, Testing
38. #PloneConf Q&A @calvinhp calvin@sixfeetup.com Let's keep building with Blocks