Building Websites with Plone

Built on the powerful and popular Zope application server, Plone is widely believed to be the best and most powerful open source content management system. Many regard it as the equal of, or superior to, commercially available CMS.

Plone has support for internationalization, complies with accessibility and usability standards, can run on various platforms, and is highly extensible. Plone is ideal as an intranet and extranet server, document publishing system, portal server, and a groupware tool for collaboration between separately located entities.

Like any feature-rich, complex system, Plone can have a steep initial learning curve. This makes good documentation essential for both the beginner and expert alike. For users new to Plone, this book provides a structured pathway through set up and initial customization. Experienced Plone developers will learn how to leverage the full capability of this powerful application.

• Chapter 1: Introducing Plone
• What Is Plone?
• Plone Hierarchy
• Operating System
• Python
• Zope
• CMF
• The Web
• Content Management with Plone
• Features
• The Plone Community
• Users
• Developers
• Plone License
• Summary
• Chapter 2: Installing and Running Plone
• System Requirements
• Server
• Clients
• Installing the Software
• New Installations
• Windows Installer
• Mac Installer
• Linux and BSD Packages
• From Scratch
• Running Plone
• Linux and Unix
• Command Line
• Service
• Windows
• Plone Controller
• Service
• Mac OS X
• Adding a Plone Site
• Upgrading Plone
• Troubleshooting
• Different Ports
• Permission Problems
• Password Problems
• Missing and Mixing Products
• Dependencies
• Zope Bugs
• RedHat 9 Crashes
• FreeBSD Segfaults
• Installing on Other Unix-Like Systems
• Summary
• Chapter 3: Managing Plone
• How to Get There
• Server Name
• Locating the Plone Web Interface
• Locating the ZMI
• The Plone Web Interface
• Plone Control Panel
• Add/Remove Products
• Error Log
• Mail Settings
• Portal Settings
• Skins
• Users and Groups Administration
• Zope Management Interface
• ZMI Controls
• Properties
• form_properties
• navigation_properties
• navtree_properties
• site_properties
• Types
• Actions
• Skins
• Workflow
• Catalog
• Form Controller
• Users and Groups Tools
• Content Type Registry
• Factory Tool
• Other Tools
• Products
• Summary
• Chapter 4: Users and Permissions
• Members
• Joining a Plone Site
• Managing Users
• Member Workspaces
• Deeper Usage
• Special Cases
• Advanced Member Management
• How Members Are Implemented
• User Properties
• Permissions
• Roles
• Global Roles
• Local Roles and the Sharing Tab
• Groups
• Managing Groups
• By Group
• By Member
• Advanced Discussion: How Groups Are Implemented
• Authentication
• Integrating Plone with Other Authentication Systems
• Extensible User Folder (XUF)
• Simple User Folder
• LDAPUserFolder
• etcUserFolder
• jcNTUserFolder
• smbUserFolder
• MySQLUserFolder
• Summary
• Chapter 5: Design and Architecture
• On-Disk Structure
• Zope Core
• Location
• Contents
• Instances
• Plone
• The Three-Layer Architecture
• Content
• Presentation
• logic
• Data Storage
• Summary
• Chapter 6: Developing on the File System
• Why Products?
• Products
• Site Products
• Install Scripts
• CustomizationPolicies
• SetupWidgets
• Choosing an Install Method
• Specific Customizations
• Summary
• Chapter 7: Layout Customization
• Skins
• Layers
• Filesystem Directory View
• Skins
• Order of Discovery
• Template Systems
• Zope Page Templates
• TALES
• TAL
• METAL
• Empty Tags
• Use of ZPT in Plone
• DTML
• Namespaces
• DTML Tags
• Choosing the Right Template
• Cascading Style Sheets
• JavaScript
• Portlets
• Default Portlets
• Navigation Tree
• Login
• Related
• Workflow Review
• News
• Events
• Recent
• Calendar
• Favorites
• About
• Creating a Portlet
• Actions
• Categories
• TALES Condition Names
• Using Actions
• Action Icons
• Forms and Navigation
• Forms
• Validators
• Actions
• Controller Scripts
• A Typical FormController Operation
• Accessibility
• External Editing
• Summary
• Chapter 8: Customizing and Creating Content Types
• Content Types
• Customizing Content Types
• Scriptable Types
• Creating New Content Types
• Creating New Content Types Using Python
• Creating New Content Types Using Archetypes
• Type Definition Through the Web
• Adapting Existing Zope Products or Python Classes
• Versioning
• Summary
• Chapter 9: Workflow and Publishing Content
• The Workflow Tool
• Customizing Workflows
• Defining Workflows in Code
• DCWorkflow API
• Permissions
• States
• Transitions
• Variables
• Worklists
• Scripts
• Workflow Tool API
• Example Workflow Definition
• Summary
• Chapter 10: Writing Plone Tools
• A New Tool
• Defining the Functionality
• Implementing the Tool
• Supporting Files
• Adding Functionality
• Using Existing Tools
• Current Tool Structure
• Summary
• Chapter 11: Using Relational Database Management Systems
• Z SQL Methods
• Database Adapters
• Composing SQL Statements
• Z SQL Method Skin Files
• Accessing Z SQL Methods
• Simple Result Traversal and Pluggable Brains
• Archetypes Storages
• Summary
• Chapter 12: Integration
• Virtual Hosting
• Virtual Hosting with Apache
• Other Approaches
• Cohabitation with Other Web Applications
• Syndication
• Using External Editors
• FTP and WebDAV
• ExternalEditor
• File System Representation
• File System Data
• CMFExternalFile
• LocalFS
• Other Applications
• Secured Mail Servers (ESMTP)
• Web Services
• REST
• XML-RPC
• SOAP
• Summary
• Chapter 13: Performance and Optimization
• Caches
• On the Server
• ZODB
• Z SQL Methods
• RAM Cache Manager
• Accelerated HTTP Cache Managers
• Other Cache Managers
• In Front of the Server
• on the Client and In Between
• Multiple Tiers
• ZEO Debugging
• Benchmarking
• Profiling
• Call Profiler
• Page Template Profiler
• Zope Profiler
• Zope-Level Profiling
• Python-Level Profiling
• Python Profiling
• An Optimization Sequence
• Turn Off Debug Mode
• Turn Up the ZODB Cache
• Other Tricks
• New or Upgraded Hardware
• Caching
• More Machines
• Code Improvement
• Python
• Templates
• Summary
• Chapter 14: Securing Plone
• Ensuring Security
• Platform Security
• Hardware
• Operating System
• System Software
• Human Factors
• Zope- and Plone-Specific Security
• Specific Threats to Web Applications
• Bad Input
• Cross-Site Scripting
• Passwords in the Clear
• Denial of Service Attacks
• Difficult or Impossible Tasks
• SSL
• Summary
• Chapter 15: Internationalization
• User Interface
• The Placeless TranslationService
• PloneLanguageTool
• The Translation Mechanism
• Making Templates i18n Aware
• Translation Files
• Content
• I18NLayer
• I18NFolder
• Other i18n Tools
• Summary

This is a book that doesn't even begin to live up to its promise. It is neither a introductory book (like Meloni's) nor a reference book (like McKay's). In fact, if you only read the Table of Contents, you will not miss anything, as the author doesn't manage to explain anything in the text, that isn't already in the TOC.

Sigh, I'll probably be flogged for this, but do yourself a favour: read something else.