What is Plone?

Plone is a web “portal:” it provides a basic set of features to allow groups of people to collaboratively author content on a website. Those features include:

The User Point of View

Plone’s functions are based upon the idea of a Role. One’s role determines what one can do. The user’s first role is Member. A member has his or her own workspace, actually a folder where the user has the additional role of Owner and can create, modify and delete content. A Member may be a Manager, who may do anything, including accessing and modifying portal-wide properties and chacteristics. A Member, along with the Anonymous role, may view all “published” and “visible” content of the site.

Document “State”

This brings up the matter of the state of documents. Documents may be “visible,” “published,” “under review,” or “hidden.” A document is visible when one first creates it. It can be viewed by anyone, but it is not seen in the navigation box nor is its name or any of its contents “hit” in a search. A document may be “published” by selecting the state tab and selecting the “Publish” radio-button and then saving the state. Depending on how the “workflow” is set up, the document may need to be approved by a Reviewer, before the document actually becomes “published.”

Workflow

In any organization, there is a hierarchy of information which reflects that organization’s hierarchy of control. This hierarchy may be complex and many-leveled; the hierarchy might be very flat and simple. Plone allows for any manner of approval for document publication. Members may be allowed to publish without the approval of a “Reviewer,” or there may be several layers of approval and review required.

For the OSIS website, we are beginning with a very flat hierarchy: members may publish anything they wish in their personal areas. Each Project area will have an Editor who will be responsible for the workflow policies of his Project. The default will be for all documents to be reviewed by the Editor before publishing. But the Editor may relax this rule for some or all of the folders of his Project.

Plone Page Views

The Plone webpage is divided into four areas: the left and right margins where “slots” or information boxes are placed. The top margin has the navigation tabs and “breadcrumbs” showing where in the site content structure one is. The center area is the real work area for the user. The central area changes in form and function, depending on its “View.” In the Contents View one can see a listing of the content items found in this container. One may cut, paste, copy, and delete items. In the Item View one can view the content of an item. The tabs above the content box allows one to access properties such as ocument state or to edit the content of the item. Don’t forget to click on the save box after creating, editing or modifying content or properties!

Further Information

• Plone website
• Zope community
• CMF website