[Zope3-dev] Portlets vs Pagelets

[Jean-Marc Orliaguet]

Jean-Marc Orliaguet wrote:

>
> My experience with the work that I am currently doing for the 
> university, to compare with the use cases listed on the Wiki is the 
> following.
>
> - the university hires a design agency and explains the function that 
> the site should fulfill with a list of the various target groups
> - a web design agency creates screens in pdf (mock-up)
> - web designers create dummy content with CPS3 (tree-like sections and 
> publish documents in the sections)
> - first implementation with CPSSkins (prototype  - 1 or 2 days of work)
> - the design (theme) is applied on the content - the first variation 
> had 10 different themes.
> - test with real users (10 - 20 users) on a test instance (no 
> optimization, caching is necessary)
> - feedback from the users about the colors, layout, etc...
> - adjustments: the web agency create a new design based on the 
> feedback from the test users, etc.
>  uses the live prototype as a basis for the new design. The new 
> version is accepted after some modifications, a new PDF is created.
> - second implementation with CPSSkins - this time with the exact 
> colors, exact page layout, etc.
>  the workflow is: create the palettes (colors, borders) > upload the 
> icons/images > create the styles > create the layout > add templets to 
> the layout > add page slots > add portlets > you have a theme
>  the same theme is then duplicated into different flavours (front 
> page, second-level pages, variations on colors, etc..). XML import/ 
> export works too for palettes, styles, images...
> - the themes are installed on a beta site (profiled, optimized), then 
> placed on a production server.
>
> the advantage is that CPSSkins is used for prototyping, for design, 
> for testing and for production so there is no conversion from PDF to 
> HTML to ZPT. No programming is required, and for special things we use 
> the 'Custom Portlet' that can render any page template (in 
> portal_skins/custom/) which makes testing very easy. It also makes it 
> easier for the design agency to see a design in action early in the 
> process.
>
> regards /JM
>

here is a preview for instance (this theme was created in 2 days)
http://www.medic.chalmers.se/~jmo/CPS/chalmers-preview.png

there are:
- templets (page elements used for the main layout - CPSSkins)
- global portlets (portlets that are managed as page elements - 
CPSPortlets) - this is simply a way or reusing the code from CPSPortlets 
and taking advantage of the portlets' own RAM cache in CPSSkins.
- local portlets (CPSPortlets) that can be modified by users that have 
write access to the section, folder, workspace. This is important 
because page designers must be able to delegate this responsibility to 
content creators.

custom portlets consist of approx. 20 lines of code in ZPT.

the rendering time for the entire page varies between 0.07 and 0.2 
seconds depending on the complexity of the document. Everything is 
cached in RAM except the menu on the left and the main document (since 
there would be too many cache entries).

Regards /JM