Successful Ingredients and zShell

1. Successful Ingredientsand zShell Josten Ma 12 March 2008

2. The UH Experience • How we got started • Lesson learned • It is not just technical • Some sample • Tools that we developed

3. Our Wish List • That does not Cost a lot • Support both • Novice users and • Developers users • Has to look nice (market branding) • Extensible • Performance, Reliability, Redundancy • Security Credit Reference: external sources

4. Open Source CMS Authenticated Users Easy of content management Full Features (more than 300 add-ons) 45 web sites on campus users WWW Portal Content Stake Holders Technical Administrations The Choice is Plone

5. Sample Web Sites • Research Centers • http://www.tlc2.uh.edu/ • http://www.tlc2.uh.edu/Members/josten • http://www.research.uh.edu/ • PI • Conferences • Student Associations • Community Outreach • Cultural (multimedia) Click here for: Example Web Sites

6. Researchers Needs • Basic Functionalities • Web Pages with customizable templates • Folders, Documents, Images & Photo Album • News, Calendar & Events • Bread Crumb, Navigation & Shortcuts • Search, Workflow • External References Links • Recent Capabilities Requests • Forum, Blog, Polls, Mailing List, Newsletter, e-commerce.

7. It is not just technical • Organization support (Boss(es)) • Understanding your user & environment • Importance of Process • Tech team • Immediate staff • Open source communities • Consultants

8. Business Process • Need a blue print • Development approach • Get them started • Interview (What is the compelling story, • Design Layout • Site mapping • Support • Training • Maintenance • Documentation • Plone Community

9. Customizing Content Pages • Select Pre-Packaged Templates • Add Contents • Built Your Own • Centralized Location • Plone Compliant

10. Member - Editing Layout Breadcrumbs Member Section View page Folder View Item Tabs Add Web Items

11. Breadcrumbs Create web page Member Section View page Folder View Item Tabs Web Page Interface Add Items

12. Apply Content Template • Choose templates • Types • Front page • With images • Slots • Combinations • Working with widgets of the template

13. News Folder View Member Section Breadcrumbs View page Folder View Item Tabs Items in News Folder Add Items

14. Web Page Templates View Member Section Breadcrumbs Change Template View page Web Page Templates

15. Customizing Web Site • Download Template • Import template • Select • Apply banner and • Customize • Add content

16. Default Design

17. Changing to New Design Simply electing the web design you like

18. Rapid Web Sites

19. What’s inside zShell? • Separates edit features into a clear and distinct editing mode. • Provides a templating framework for the creation of presentation elements of a website. • Allow developers to swap and install entirely new Plone skins for their portals with a simple click. • Highly extensible • Transform the presentation of plone portals entirely and are content driven, so a single portal can now take on many different visual forms. • Installs a new content type called Web Page. Web Pages are essentially Document types, but can be assigned content layout templates to enforce consist looking pages, or provide a set of features a given page should contain.

20. In Reflection • Tools which we are happy with • Best thing since slic bread • Go to market? • To Productizer or not?

21. In Closing • ZShells Augments Plone into a true CMS backed website • Does not sacrifice any of Plone’s features and editing contributions but at the same time removes all content editing features from the anonymous presentation of the portal • Adheres to the Plone way of utilizing templates • Moves away from the default appearance of Plone without losing any features of Plone. • Easy to maintain and support through future upgrades

22. Lesson Learned • Many kind of users • Some say –’Plone can be difficult for infrequent or non-technical content managers.’ • Users might want to use Plone as a web site, as opposed to a CMS portal • Users might want to move away from default appearance of Plone without losing any features of Plone • Need for core CMS features to coexist within a more traditional presentation framework for the web

23. What is zShell? • Framework providing an alternative interface for using Plone portals within Zope. • Distinguishes an ‘edit mode’ and a ‘view mode’ for Plone’s default editing interface. • Provides an additional templating system that integrates into the traditional Plone template concepts • Drives the entire presentation of the portal, as opposed to being married to a single main template

24. What is zShell? • Comes with a default template suite that can be customized • Enables multiple skins for entire Website and also different skins for varied parts of same Website • Or Create a consistent branding with complex multi-level nested templates • Quick prototyping tool

25. Questions Thanks

26. And a bit more … • Adds a new content type called Web Page, which allows developers to create as many presentation templates as they desire for Web Page. • And with this, customization of the web site is just a pencil click away • Reusable and Customizable • For security, like Plone, it adheres to Zope’s robust security framework • It also integrates well with other Plone Products available and the workflow settings as well

27. The zShell Game • Applying your own design • Install zShell and Use • 3 simple steps • Changing Shells is simple • Import Design Template OR • Customize your own • Replicating web site with Appeal