Plone 3.3 Site Administration

Chapter 1. Background

In the past few years, the Plone community has experienced some dramatic changes in the way Plone sites are being developed, deployed, and maintained:

Once upon a time, add-ons to Zope 2 were distributed as specialized Python packages (called Products); nowadays they are distributed as generic Python packages (called Eggs)
Originally, the Zope 2 application server was distributed as a single monolithic package; nowadays many parts of Zope 2 have been factored out into smaller packages, which comprise a portion of a larger set of reusable Zope packages (called the Zope Toolkit)

To make things more challenging, the Zope community has recently renamed various projects and has redefined the Zope ecosystem in the process:

The web framework formerly known as Zope 3 is now called Bluebream (http://bluebream.zope.org/)
The set of libraries formerly known as Zope 3 is now called the Zope Toolkit (http://docs.zope.org/zopetoolkit/)

While this influx of new technology alongside the old has presented a challenge for many, it represents a fundamental step in the forward direction for Plone:

With the adoption of Eggs, Plone joins the rest of the Python community in sharing a common packaging framework with a rich set of features, including the ability to specify version dependencies
With the adoption of the Zope Toolkit, Plone joins the rest of the Zope community in using the Zope Component Architecture to manage application complexity

Unfortunately, there is a price to pay for all of this progress—confusion. Many people are confused about the best way to develop, deploy, and maintain their Plone site. This is very much expected with a complex system like Plone, but is not ideal.

Note

Although not quite there yet, Plone is moving rapidly towards a better development, deployment, and maintenance story. Every day the situation improves, and there has never been a better time to start using Plone! The author truly believes in the Plone software and community, and hopes this book will inspire others to feel the same.

By presenting clear instructions and using best practices and techniques from the Python and Zope communities, this book aims to eliminate any remaining confusion.

In this chapter, you will learn:

Site administration essentials
What you need to get started
About the Plone installers
About Python software distributions
How to install Distribute—a framework for managing Python packages
How to install PIP—a more user friendly Python package installer
How to install Buildout—a tool for building software
More about Python software distributions
How to install a C compiler
How to install Subversion—a version control system
How to install Python with Buildout

Site administration essentials

Before we begin, let's put into perspective the effort we are about to undertake. Everything you learn in this book is intended to make you a better Plone site administrator.

In order to disseminate the subject matter, we will divide the site administrator's tasks into three categories:

Development
Deployment
Maintenance

Development

Development usually begins with a buildout configuration file checked into a software repository. Initially, this buildout creates a software stack suitable for running the desired version of Plone.

Using this buildout, any developer can join the development team quickly and gain speed fairly easily. As the site administrator, you may be doing some, all, or none of the coding for your site, but you should still be familiar with the process.

Development tasks usually consist of:

Creation of a policy package: It is necessary for performing various site customizations. Policy in this context usually means: "applies project-specific customizations or features". See Chapter 5 of "Professional Plone Development", Martin Aspeli, Packt Publishing ( https://www.packtpub.com/Professional-Plone-web-applications-CMS/book) for more information.
Theme development: Traditionally, themes are implemented within a theme package that contains CSS and JavaScript files, images, and so on. More recently, you may see Deliverance or XDV-based themes being used (outside of Plone). See "Plone 3 Theming", Veda Williams, Packt Publishing ( https://www.packtpub.com/plone-3-theming-create-flexible-powerful-professional-templates/book) for more information.
Adding features: In addition to customizing Plone's default features, you may need to add new features as well. You can do this by installing existing add-ons or developing new features from scratch.
Writing tests: Unless you want to click through your site every time you make a code change to make sure that everything still works properly, you will want to write the tests—you will want to write lots of tests. In addition to the practical aspects of testing, good test coverage is a strong indicator of a job well done. See: http://plone.org/documentation/kb/testing for more information.

Deployment

Eric S. Raymond (http://catb.org/~esr/), besides being a well-known open source advocate, is also well-known for this statement (http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ar01s04.html):

"Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers."

This sentiment is not lost on the professional Plone site administrator. The sooner you can deploy a basic set of features to staging, the happier your client or boss is going to be. Deployment steps usually consist of:

Provision servers
Deploy to staging
Performance testing
Client evaluation
Deploy to production

Maintenance

These are the tasks that no one wants to perform, but that everyone will blame you for not doing whenever they are not done. Fortunately, we can automate most of these:

Pack the database
Rotate logs
Back up the site
Monitor performance

The following diagram illustrates the typical workflow associated with these tasks:

In the diagram above, you will notice three workflow states—development, deployment, and maintenance. We describe the common transitions between each of these states as follows:

Development to deployment: During development, a project buildout is created. Not long after that, it may be deployed to staging for testing. It is not uncommon to deploy to staging many times before deploying to production.
Deployment to maintenance: Eventually, after development is complete, deployment to production occurs. Once you deploy to production, proper maintenance becomes critical.
Maintenance to development: After some time in production (with regularly-scheduled maintenance), more development may be required to fix bugs or add new features. Eventually, the development costs may outweigh the return on investment, at which point you are approaching the end of life.

Do not take this too literally; it is just meant to provide some perspective and a glimpse into the cyclical nature of Plone site administration.

About Python software distributions

With the exception of Windows, most modern operating systems ship with some version of Python pre-installed.

Although this version may not be compatible with Plone 3.3, it is still useful to have around.

In case Python is not pre-installed, you should install Python 2.4 because that version works with Plone 3.3. We will get to that later in the chapter.

Using Python on Mac OS X

Mac OS X 10.6 is shipped with Python 2.6 pre-installed. Although this version will not work with Plone 3.3, we can use it to install the following:

Distribute
PIP
Buildout

But first, let us explore some basic Python usage.

Verify that Python works

To verify that Python works, open Finder | Applications | Utilities | Terminal.

Check the version: To check the version, type:
```
$ python -V
```
Run the interpreter: To run the interactive Python interpreter, type:
```
$ python
```
Exit: To exit, press Ctrl + D.

You should see:

We have just demonstrated using Python 2.6 on Mac OS X.

Installing Python on Windows

Windows 7 does not come pre-installed with Python, but there is an installer available on http://python.org.

Download the Python installer

Since an installer for the latest version (in the 2.4.x series) is not available, and because it is difficult to compile the source on Windows, we will use the 2.4.4 version instead.

Using Internet Explorer (or any other web browser):

Navigate to http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.4.4/.
Scroll down to Windows.
Select python-2.4.4.msi (http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.4.4/python-2.4.4.msi).
Save the file.

Run the Python installer

Windows will present a series of dialogues which you can answer based on the following suggestions:

Install for all users
Install to the default location
Install the default features

You should see:

Configure the Environment Variable—Path

Now that Python is installed, we would like to be able to easily run the interactive Python interpreter from the Command Prompt. To accomplish this, perform the following steps:

Select Start | Computer | System properties | Advanced system settings | Environment Variables.
Under System variables, scroll down to Path.
Select Edit.
Add the following separated by a semicolon:
- C:\Python24
- C:\Python24\Scripts
Click on Save.

You should see:

Now, let us test this.

Verify that Python works

To verify that Python works, open Start | All Programs | Accessories | Command Prompt.

Check the version: To check the version, type:
```
$ python -V
```
Run the interpreter: To run the interactive Python interpreter, type:
```
$ python
```
Exit: To exit, press Ctrl + Z and hit Enter.

You should see:

We have just finished demonstrating how to install and test Python 2.4 on Windows.

While we are here, let us take a minute to install some additional software that we will need later.

Install PyWin

If you were to install and run Plone now, you may encounter the following error:

To avoid this error, install PyWin for Python 2.4:

Browse to http://sourceforge.net/proje cts/pywin32/files/.
Select pywin32-214.win32-py2.4.exe to download the file.
Run the installer.

The PyWin library provides access to the Windows programming API. Visit http://plone.org/documentation/kb/using-buildout-on-windows/ for more information.

Using Python on Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu Linux ships with Python 2.6 pre-installed.

All we need to do is test it.

Verify that Python works

To verify that Python works, open Applications | Accessories | Terminal.

Check the version: To check the version, type:
```
$ python -V
```
Run the interpreter: To run the interactive Python interpreter, type:
```
$ python
```
Exit: To exit, press Ctrl + D.

You should see:

We have just finished demonstrating how to test Python 2.4 on Ubuntu Linux.

At this point, we have taken steps to explore Python on each of our targeted operating systems.

We will now move forward with that technology.

How to install Distribute—a framework for managing Python packages

First, let us have a look at some background on Distribute. According to the Distribute website (http://packages.python.org/distribute/), Distribute is:

"… intended to replace Setuptools as the standard method for working with Python module distributions."

According to the setuptools website (http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/setuptools), setuptools is:

"… a collection of enhancements to the Python distutils (for Python 2.3.5 and up on most platforms; 64-bit platforms require a minimum of Python 2.4) that allow you to more easily build and distribute Python packages, especially ones that have dependencies on other packages."

Among other things, Distribute facilitates the easy installation of Python packages from the Python Package Index (PyPI) page on http://pypi.python.org.

The Distribute authors (also known as the Fellowship of the Packaging) enthusiastically recommend you choose Distribute over setuptools with this propaganda from their website (http://packages.python.org/distribute/):

In addition to fixing setuptools, the Fellowship of the Packaging plan to fix the core package management libraries in Python.

These two frameworks are built on top of the Distutils (http://docs.python.org/library/distutils.html) library, which is part of the Python core, and is distributed with Python.

In order to fix things properly, fixes must be applied at the Distutils level.

Fortunately, all the hard work done in Distutils, setuptools, and Distribute over the years will end up in a new library called Distutils 2.

If you are interested in the future of Python packaging, the following diagram (http://guide.python-distribute.org/introduction.html#current-state-of-packaging) may help explain the status quo:

This diagram suggests we use the Distribute add-on library until Distutils 2 is released as part of the core library (which is months away, as of May 2010).

And now we shall install Distribute.

Installing Distribute on Mac OS X

While the curl program is recommended by the Distribute propaganda, it is not pre-installed with Mac OS X.

You can use Safari instead.

Download distribute_setup.py

To download the Distribute installer using Safari:

Browse to http://python-distribute.org.
Click on distribute_setup.py.
Select File | Save as and save it as distribute_setup.py.

Execute distribute_setup.py

To install Distribute, open Finder | Applications | Utilities | Terminal, change the directories to wherever you saved the file, and then type:

$ sudo python distribute_setup.py

If prompted, type your Mac OS X user account password.

You should see:

Verify that Distribute works

To verify that Distribute works, open Finder | Applications | Utilities | Terminal and type:

$ easy_install

You should see:

This means Distribute is installed and working.

We have just finished demonstrating how to install and test Distribute on Mac OS X.

Installing Distribute on Windows 7

The curl program does not ship with Windows, but you can use Internet Explorer instead.

Download distribute_setup.py

To download the Distribute installer with Internet Explorer:

Browse to http://python-distribute.org.
Right-click on distribute_setup.py.
Select Save Target As and save it as distribute_setup.py.

Execute distribute_setup.py

To install Distribute, select Start | All Programs | Accessories | Command Prompt and type:

$ python distribute_setup.py

You should see:

Verify that Distribute works

To verify that Distribute works, select Start | All Programs | Accessories | Command Prompt and type:

> easy_install

You should see:

This means Distribute is installed and is working.

We have just finished demonstrating how to install and test Distribute on Windows.

Installing Distribute on Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu Linux does not come with the curl program pre-installed, but you can install it with:

$  sudo aptitude install curl

If you are prompted for a password, type your Ubuntu Linux account password.

Download distribute_setup.py

To download the Distribute installer, open Applications | Accessories | Terminal and type:

$ curl –O http://python-distribute.org/distribute_setup.py

Execute distribute_setup.py

To install Distribute, type:

$ python distribute_setup.py

You should see:

Verify that Distribute works

To verify that Distribute works, type:

$ sudo easy_install

You should see:

This means that Distribute is installed and working.

We have just finished demonstrating how to install and test Distribute on Ubuntu Linux.

Distribute comes with the easy_install program which you can use to install packages from the Python Package Index (http://pypi.python.org) with commands like:

$ easy_install package

Unfortunately, easy_install lacks critical features such as the ability to uninstall packages.

Fortunately, PIP (http://pip.openplans.org/) includes this feature, and more.

How to install Buildout—a tool for building software

First, let us have a look at some background on Buildout.

You do not have to use easy_install or PIP to install Buildout as we are about to do. Doing so will cause Buildout to be installed on your system Python's site-packages directory; the choice is yours.

The Zope community provides a bootstrap file for creating isolated Buildout environments outside site-packages: http://svn.zope.org/repos/main/zc.buildout/trunk/bootstrap/bootstrap.py.

If you download and execute this file, it will create a buildout in the current working directory.

We will use that method almost exclusively later, but for now, let us install Buildout globally (that is in the system Python's site-packages directory).

Also, let us try using PIP instead of easy_install this time (since we have just installed PIP).

Installing Buildout on Mac OS X

To install Buildout using PIP, open Finder | Applications | Utilities | Terminal and type:

$ sudo pip install zc.buildout

Tip

Namespace packages

Note that the package name of Buildout is zc.buildout, which indicates it is a "namespace package". To read more about this topic, visit: http://docs.python.org/tutorial/modules.html#packages.

You should see:

If you are prompted for a password, type your Mac OS X account password.

To verify that Buildout works, type:

$ buildout

Assuming you are not in a directory with a buildout.cfg file, you should see:

We have just finished demonstrating how to install and test Buildout on Mac OS X.

Installing Buildout on Windows 7

To install Buildout, select Start | All Programs | Accessories | Command Prompt and type:

$ pip install zc.buildout

You should see:

To verify that Buildout works, type:

$ buildout

We have just finished demonstrating how to install and test Buildout on Windows.

Installing Buildout on Ubuntu Linux

To install Buildout, open Applications | Accessories | Terminal and type:

$ sudo pip install zc.buildout

You should see:

To verify that Buildout works, type:

$ buildout

You should see:

We have just finished demonstrating how to install and test Buildout on Ubuntu Linux.

How to install a C compiler

Both Python and Zope 2 require a C compiler to build from source. So let us take a minute to explore the available options. Regardless of the packaging, each of the following software provides some version of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and libraries (http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.3/).

Installing a C compiler on Mac OS X

Before you can compile C code on Mac OS X, you must install XCode (http://developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/xcode.html).

Installing XCode

Check your Mac OS X installation DVD or Apple Developer Connection (http://developer.apple.com/) for the latest version.

Verify that GCC works

To verify that GCC works, open Finder | Applications | Utilities | Terminal and type:

$ gcc

You should see:

We have just finished explaining how to install and test a C compiler on Mac OS X.

Installing a C compiler on Windows

Before you can compile C code on Windows, you must install MinGW (or Microsoft's Visual Studio, but that approach is not covered in this book).

Downloading MinGW

To download MinGW with Internet Explorer:

Browse to http://mingw.org.
Click on Downloads | View all files | Automated MinGW Installer | MinGW-5.1.6.exe.
Save the file.
Run the installer.

Installing MinGW

Windows will present a series of dialogues you can answer based on the following suggestions:

Select the current package
Select g++ and check options in addition to the base tools
Select the default location

You should see:

Adding MinGW to the Environment Variable—Path

Now that a C compiler is installed, we would like to be able to easily run the gcc command from the Command Prompt. To accomplish this, perform the following steps:

Select Start | Computer System Properties | Advanced system settings | Environment Variables.
Under System variables, scroll down to Path.
Select Edit.
Add the following separated by a semicolon:
- C:\MinGW\bin
Click on Save.

You should see:

Verify that GCC works

To verify that your C compiler works, select Start | All Programs | Accessories | Command Prompt and type:

$ gcc

You should see:

We have just demonstrated how to install and test a C compiler on Windows.

Configuring Distutils

Later, when you try to compile Zope 2, your Buildout may fail with a Visual Studio error like this:

To avoid this error, you can configure Distribute to use MinGW's C compiler. Just create a file called C:\Python\Lib\Distutils\distutils.cfg, and include the following contents:

[build] 
compiler=mingw32

Visit http://plone.org/documentation/kb/using-buildout-on-windows/ for more information.

Installing a C compiler on Ubuntu Linux

Before you can compile C code on Ubuntu Linux, you must install the build-essential package (http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/build-essential):

$ sudo aptitude install build-essential

You should see:

Verify that GCC works

To verify that GCC works, type:

$ gcc  
gcc: no input files

You should see:

We have just demonstrated how to install and test a C compiler on Ubuntu Linux.

Installing additional development libraries

Later on, when you are using Buildout to install Python, you may encounter this error:

To avoid this error, install the zlib1g-dev library:

$ sudo aptitude install zlib1g-dev

How to install Subversion—a version control system

The Plone community maintains several Subversion (http://subversion.apache.org/) software repositories for core and add-on software development.

In addition, the community maintains a Trac (http://trac.edgewall.org/) instance for each repository to facilitate easy browsing.

Below, you will find links to each of the Plone community's Trac instances, one for each repository:

As such, we shall make sure each of our operating systems has a Subversion client available in case we need to access software from any of the repositories.

(In the next section, we will check out a Python buildout from the collective repository, developed by Plone core developer Florian Schulze.)

Using Subversion on Mac OS X

Mac OS X 10.6 ships with Subversion 1.6.5 pre-installed; all we have to do is test it.

Verify that Subversion works

To verify that Subversion works, type:

$ svn

You should see:

We have just demonstrated how to test Subversion on Mac OS X.

Installing Subversion on Windows

Windows 7 does not ship with Subversion pre-installed, but there is an installer available on http://collab.net.

Downloading Subversion

To download Subversion:

Create an account here: http://www.open.collab.net/servlets/Join.
Browse to http://collab.net. Click on Downloads | Subversion | Windows | CollabNet Subversion Command-Line Client v1.6.9 (for Windows) | Download | Run.
Run the installer.

Installing Subversion

Click on Next, accept the default installation location, and so on, and then wait for a few seconds.

You should see:

Verify that Subversion works

To verify that Subversion works, type:

$ svn

You should see:

We have just demonstrated how to install and test Subversion on Windows.

Installing Subversion on Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu Linux does not ship with Subversion pre-installed, but you can easily install it with the following command:

$ sudo aptitude install subversion

You should see:

Verify that Subversion works

To verify that Subversion works, type:

$ svn

You should see:

We have just demonstrated how to install and test Subversion on Ubuntu Linux.

How to install Python with Buildout

We have now arrived at the pinnacle task for this chapter—installing Python with Buildout.

From now on, we will not provide any operating system-specific instructions, but you can expect the examples in the rest of this book to work on all supported operating systems, unless otherwise stipulated.

Remember, we are still trying to satisfy the requirement of Python 2.4 across all the three operating systems.

Running the first buildout

In the code bundle for this chapter, you will find a file called 01-background-python.cfg, which contains the following:

[buildout]
parts = python-buildout

[python-buildout]
recipe = infrae.subversion
location = src
urls = http://svn.plone.org/svn/collective/buildout/python/src/ python-buildout

(If you have not done so already, download the book examples from https://www.packtpub.com/plone-3-3-site-administration/book and unzip them into your home directory.)

Change directories to the extracted buildout directory and type:

$ buildout –c 01-background-python.cfg

You should see:

$ buildout -c 01-background-python.cfg 
Got infrae.subversion 1.4.5. 
Getting distribution for 'py'. 
install_dir /Users/aclark/Developer/plone-site-admin/buildout/eggs/tmpbIk70j 
Got py 1.3.0. 
/Users/aclark/Developer/plone-site-admin/buildout/eggs/infrae.subversion-1.4.5-py2.6.egg/infrae/subversion/Common.py:4: DeprecationWarning: the sets module is deprecated 
  from sets import Set            # For python 2.3 compatibility 
Installing python-buildout.

Running the second buildout

Inside the buildout/src/python-buildout directory, there is a file called python24.cfg.

This is the buildout that will download and build Python 2.4 for us. All we need to do is run it:

$ buildout –c src/python-buildout/python24.cfg

Early on, you may encounter an error about a missing downloads directory:

While: 
  Installing python-2.4-build. 
Error: The directory: 
'/Users/aclark/Developer/plone-site-admin/buildout/src/python-buildout/downloads' 
to be used as a download cache doesn't exist.

If so, just create the directory and then re-run the buildout command.

You should see:

$ buildout -c src/python-buildout/python24.cfg 
Unused options for buildout: 'base-parts'. 
Updating opt. 
opt: Running  
…

Installing python-2.4-build. 
python-2.4-build: Downloading http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.4.6/Python-2.4.6.tar.bz2 
python-2.4-build: Unpacking and configuring 
python-2.4-build: Updating environment: CFLAGS=-arch x86_64 
… 
Installed /Users/aclark/Developer/plone-site-admin/buildout/src/python-buildout/python-2.4/lib/python2.4/site-packages/PIL-1.1.6-py2.4-macosx-10.6-i386.egg 
Processing dependencies for PIL==1.1.6 
Finished processing dependencies for PIL==1.1.6 
Unused options for python-2.4-PIL: 'update-command'. 
Installing python-2.4-test. 
Unused options for python-2.4-test: 'update-script'. 
$

Verify that Python works

To verify that Python works, type:

$ src/python-buildout/parts/opt/bin/python2.4

You should see:

$ src/python-buildout/parts/opt/bin/python2.4  
Python 2.4.6 (#1, May  9 2010, 02:12:47)  
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5659)] on darwin 
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. 
>>>

At this point, we have Python 2.4.6 installed on both Ubuntu Linux and Mac OS X, and Python 2.4.4 installed on Windows.

All of our targeted operating systems now have a version of Python capable of running Plone 3.3.

In addition, we have installed a C compiler and Subversion client.

Our computers are now ready to build Plone 3.3:

That is all for this chapter, great job! It's all downhill from here.

Marcos F. Romero Sep 02, 2010

I've just finished reading Plone 3.3 Site Administration by Alex Clark, an eagerly awaited book of Packt Publishing, and I'm glad to say that it really exceded my expectations.After having read the first two chapters with excelent procedures for installing Python, basic packages, a C compiler and finally Plone, I got a little confused when I faced some non administration-related sections like "Customizing site navigation", "Adding new content types" and the "Appearence" chapter. These sections, with buildout specific examples though, were a little off topic in my humblest opinion.Anyway, after those pages, I dived into *the* Plone Administration reference book I was seeking:* In detail LDAP integration (chapter 4)* Essential maintenance tasks like backing-up, packing and log-rotating (chapter 5)* Excelent step-by-step recipes to configure several alternatives to de facto industry standard web servers, cache servers and load balancers (chapter 6)* Straightforward and very useful security tips (chapter 7)I particularly liked the way the author summarizes all the buildout configuration options exposed across the whole book in "Analyzing the contents of our buildout", chapter 8.It's true that most of the topics coverd in the book can be found in other already published books or online references, but what technical book is not?As I said above, Plone 3.3. Site Administration is, for me, the Plone Administration reference that was missing and thankfuly is already with us!

Amazon Verified review

Israel Saeta Perez Sep 07, 2010

Packt Plone books strike again! Written by well-known Alex Clark and technically reviewed by the re-incident Steve McMahon, Plone 3.3 Site Administration comes to my e-shelf. Being Alex the most dedicated plone.org administrator, you can't expect him to be wrong at how to manage a Plone site. :)While the book target audience is claimed to be everyone interested in becoming more familiar with how to professionally manage Plone sites, I've found most of the book very, very basic. If you know how to use a terminal, a text editor and a browser, you're likely not going to have many problems following the detailed tiny-step-by-tiny-step instructions provided in the book. However, the reader might feel sometimes like a script-kiddie, executing commands and adding sections to his/her buildout without really understanding fully what he/she's doing (and why) and thus unable to confidently change the configuration. This is specially true in the last chapters of the book.The writing style is always casual and easy. Alex gets directly to the point without much bla-bla. The downside is that Alex sometimes uses some concepts (like Five, FSDVs or CMF) in the book without previous introduction or pointers to further documentation. But of course, you can always rely on Google. For some questions the reader might have, Alex has opted for a short-answer/medium-answer/long-answer schema that, while the division is not always perfect, helps the reader to decide how in deep does he/she want to go.The book is a gentle introduction to buildout and product installation (including basic theming) for absolute beginners, and that's what the first half of the book is all about, but I had expected a longer treatment of load balancing schemes, cache proxies and settings for optimal performance, load testing, multimedia streaming, development-production products and buildout deployment, apache/nginx configuration for Plone, multiple ZODB mount-points and ZEO configuration, among others. These are the kind of things I would expect an advanced Plone site administrator to master, and what we need proper, comprehensive documentation for.Summing up, if you fall inside the target audience outlined in the paragraph above, you're going to like this book. If you're looking for more hard-core site administration stuff, check out Planet Plone and other online docs.

Kindle Customer Aug 17, 2010

This book is meant for Plone Administrators, and it has some good material for this audience. It guides the reader through Plone 3 setup, and offers a great many tips on using buildout, the preferred way to add functionality to Plone. This isn't a great book for development, though-- there's almost nothing here dealing with software development. In a great many places, there are explanations about how to install some important feature like a cache agent-- but very little explanation about what a cache agent is. It's all about changing your Plone site through configuration. There are plenty of valuable tips on appearance (themes), securing the site, caching mechanisms, log rotation, etc. It reads like the working notes of a well-practiced administrator. If Plone administration is your job, you'll probably like this book.

Plone 3.3 Site Administration: Manage your site like a Plone professional

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