Content Management System
This query started out in a separate thread about permissions, but it's sufficiently important to me to pose again here. I've been struggling to make the CMS abilities of zope user-friendly enough for 'joe average' end-users. Really it's designed for a 'power' content manager who delegates, secures, and generally has taken the time to study all the Content Management docs, etc. However, most of my clients don't have those kinds of requirements and aren't that technologically savvy, so I end up coding ultra-simplified interfaces for them on a per-project basis. I know you can restrict permissions on just about every available method, and I am aware of the current skinnable zope project, which may improve the situation drastically. But I'm interested to know, how many of you offer the Zope TTW interface to clients as a content management system, and how many just use it as a development interface? I'm beginning to wonder if content management and system administration should be split out into separate subsystems. Or if a CMS Tool Kit should be developed. (workflows, syndication, etc...). But I'm still far from being a zope power user myself, and have yet to appreciate the range of its potential. What do you people think? Seb.
This query started out in a separate thread about permissions, but it's sufficiently important to me to pose again here.
I've been struggling to make the CMS abilities of zope user-friendly enough for 'joe average' end-users. Really it's designed for a 'power' content manager who delegates, secures, and generally has taken the time to study all the Content Management docs, etc. However, most of my clients don't have those kinds of requirements and aren't that technologically savvy, so I end up coding ultra-simplified interfaces for them on a per-project basis.
I know you can restrict permissions on just about every available method, and I am aware of the current skinnable zope project, which may improve the situation drastically. But I'm interested to know, how many of you offer the Zope TTW interface to clients as a content management system, and how many just use it as a development interface? I'm beginning to wonder if content management and system administration should be split out into separate subsystems. Or if a CMS Tool Kit should be developed. (workflows, syndication, etc...). But I'm still far from being a zope power user myself, and have yet to appreciate the range of its potential.
What do you people think?
The PTK might offer you some help in this respect. Zope as a CMS _is_ possible, but IMO you'll have to wrap the parts of the management interface that you want to expose to your users and hide the rest. This will effectively limit you as to what you will let your users add to Zope, but in a CMS situation, this will probably be the case anyway. The management interface as is won't mean much to most of them, but custom forms can also call the manage methods. It's probably a good idea to use something like the HTML Widgets product that was recently announced here, or the HiperDom thing. For most of the user management parts you will probably need someone with affinity for web developing, though as long as you keep the tasks constrained, some simple instructions will probably suffice. I have been developing something similar in what should be a course framework (a product that I don't seem to be able able to finish) that is geared toward an educational situation. It's predecessor has been in use at a university for some time and it seems to suffice as least as good as commercial packages. hth Rik
Hi!
I know you can restrict permissions on just about every available method, and I am aware of the current skinnable zope project, which may improve the situation drastically. But I'm interested to know, how many of you offer the Zope TTW interface to clients as a content management system, and how many just use it as a development interface? I'm beginning to wonder if content management and system administration should be split out into separate subsystems. Or if a CMS Tool Kit should be developed. (workflows, syndication, etc...). But I'm still far from being a zope power user myself, and have yet to appreciate the range of its potential.
What do you people think?
We have some client who use Zope for (at least partly) doing CMS on their site. But these are quite simple (thus no commitments, etc.) When switching from a database centered approach to a more Zope based (e.g. doing it via Zope Products) I actually splitted the management interface in one for the main manager (we) and one more simple and configurable one for the clients (starting with ..../admin ). I now used it in two subprojects and it seems to work. The only thing I need to think about more specifically is how to factor out the client-side of the management interface more clearly as right now it's very much weaved into the actual classes. Also I am thinking about possibilities to split the actual data from the presentation and to make the presentation pluggable. But this is quite raw at the moment ;-) cheers, Christian
I'm beginning to wonder if content management and system administration should be split out into separate subsystems. Or if a CMS Tool Kit should be developed. (workflows, syndication, etc...).
We (iuveno) are currently preparing a major project to write a full-featured CMS on base of Zope. The first client will be a university, but the system will also be usable in commercial environments, and it will be open source from the first day on (except for the client-specific stuff of course). The first draft of the general architecture is as follows: There is a ZClass- or Python-product-based toolkit that provides the standard functionality, like base classes, workflow logic, etc. Plugin ZClasses implement the actual organization logic, so you can choose between building a university, a sports club, or maybe a consulting business by just choosing the corresponding modules. Chromes (logos, stylesheets, ...) and Views (page layouts) are also implemented as plugins. There will be a full-fledged workflow/project management component (at least in the long run). The concept will build upon ideas from the PTK and the ZDP-tools. There is a very simple prototype we will make public after some clean-ups. We are checking at the moment if we should set up a now project homepage or wiki or join an existing effort like the ZDP-tool-based initiative of Maik Röder on or the PTK. BTW: My experience with "dumb users" working with the Zope interface is quite positive. As long as they just have to add, change or delete predefined objects it doesn't seem to be that bad. They just shouldn't have to know about DTML or even acquisition. Joachim.
participants (4)
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cs＠comlounge.net -
Joachim Werner -
Rik Hoekstra -
Seb Bacon