1.
Plomino
How to easily build Plone custom applications
through the web
with small development knowledge
Eric BREHAULT – Plone Conference 2010
2.
Plone is so powerful
With no Zope/Plone development knowledge and good
Plone usage knowledge, you can build a powerful
intranet:
● you can structure the site easily,
● you can manage users access rights and workflows in a very
granular way,
● you can extend Plone standard features with a lot of excellent
products.
3.
But you might need a custom app
Your intranet is just perfect, but at some point, you need a
purchase management application.
Of course, you want this application to be integrated
into your intranet.
What can you do ?
4.
Create a content type ?
Plone is a CMS, a purchase request might be considered as a
content-type.
Let's go:
1 schema (made with ArchgenXML or Dexterity)
+ few collections
+ 1 workflow (made with uworth.northstar)
= approximately what you need
5.
Not that easy
Even if you do not necessarily need to be a developer to use
the mentionned tools, it will still imply you have a good
knowledge of:
● What a schema is.
● How Plone workflows work.
● How to deploy custom products.
6.
Will it fit the needs ?
Theoretiocally, the “Purchase request is just a content-type”
approach should work.
Practically, you will have to deal with hundreds of small
and funny extra-requirements:
● the request form has 2 specific fields when you order furnitures,
● the approval workflow is not the same if you belong to the HR
department, unless the manager is in vacation,
● the price list is provided in a monthly updated CSV file stored on a LAN
shared disk,
● Etc.
7.
Will it fit the needs ?
So, practically, you will have to heavily tune the basic
content-type behaviour.
And if you are not a Plone expert, you are lost.
8.
One could oppose that what has been described here is not a
simple application but a quite complex one.
If complex applications cannot be easily produced by non
Plone experts, that is fair enough.
My opinion:
● It is not a complex case, it is just the difference between
a theorical case and a real case.
● Most part of time, real applications are not content-
types.
● Non Plone experts must be able to produce real
business applications.
"Let no man ignorant of Plone enter here."
Plato
9.
● Plomino allows to develop, deploy and maintain custom
applications entirely from the Plone web interface.
● There is no schema, no data model, the application
designer does not have to worry about the persistence,
he/she will design forms, data will be saved accordingly.
● Everything can be scripted in order to adapt the
behaviour to fit the actual needs.
Plomino principles
10.
1.Add a new Plomino “database” as any Plone content-type,
➔ The database is the root element which support the entire
application.
2.Design some “forms” in TinyMCE,
➔ A form offers a layout and a set of fields.
3.Forms allow to create “documents”, or provide useful
screens (menu, search, reports, etc.),
➔ Documents are just a set of items. The items may match
the form fields, or not.
4.Create some “views” to list / filter / sort the documents in
different ways.
Create a Plomino application
11.
Forms are created using TinyMCE.
A form is just a freely editable rich text content where the
user can insert:
● Fields,
● Actions,
● Hide-when formulas,
● Sub-forms.
Create Plomino forms
DEMO
12.
A field can be:
● Editable: the user enters its value and it is stored in the
document,
● Computed: a formula computes its value and it is stored in
the document,
● Computed for display: a formula computes its value but is
not stored,
● Computed on creation: a formula computes its value at
creation time.
Field modes
DEMO
13.
Plomino provides a set of basic fields:
Text, Rich text, Number, Date/time, File attachement,
Selection list.
And also advanced fields:
● Names: to select Plone members.
● Doclinks: to create links between documents.
● Datagrids: to manage editable dynamic tables.
● Google chart and Google visualization: to create rich
charts or maps.
Different field types
DEMO
14.
Formulas are used to script the regular Plomino behaviour:
● Compute field values,
● Implement some custom actions,
● Hide some part of a form contextually,
● Process documents,
● Handle events,
● Handle redirections,
● Etc.
Formulas are written in Python, and are compiled as
Python scripts.
Formulas everywhere
DEMO
15.
2 applications:
● Flood alert SMS subscription
mechanism
Map display, connection to an
external realtional database,
export to CSV.
● Hydro-sensors maintenance
system
Visit planing, visit sheet
import/export.
Business cases
DEMO
Adour river flood forecasting agency
16.
Contacts database
Connexion with Plone
members.
Complex queries.
Large amount of contacts (>
8000)
Business cases
DEMO
International Council for Science
17.
Project monitoring
application
● Advanced reporting,
● Complex forms,
● Workflow.
Business cases
DEMO
United Nations Environment Programs
18.
Business cases
● Extremely various Plomino applications, built by extremely
various people:
– Archeologists,
– Lawyers,
– Real estate managers,
– Librarians,
– And even Plone experts.
● Any example in the room ?
19.
Is it serious ?
● Alexander Limi said yesterday: “Recruit people”.
● A TTW application builder like that is good for non-
experts.
● But can it meet development standard expectations ?
Let's see how Plomino handles:
● Deployment,
● Maintenance,
● Debugging,
● Testing,
● Content synchronization.
20.
Deployment and maintenance
● Plomino provides an import/export mechanism.
● The design (the application structure) can deployed over
HTTP from a server to another (even from between a Plone
3 and a Plone 4 instance).
● It can be exported as XML (and then imported back
somewhere else).
● The resulting XML can be managed in a SVN (or other)
repository.
● It allows partial import/export.
DEMO
22.
Testing
Testing as usual:
● Selenium
● Doctests
With doctests, the principle is to create a blank Plomino db,
then import your current XML design version, then run your
scenarios.
It can be then automated on Hudson.
23.
Testing
Import basic-example db
>>> f = open(os.path.join(dir, "samples", "basic-example.xml"))
>>> id = folder.invokeFactory('PlominoDatabase', id='basic-example')
>>> db = getattr(folder, 'basic-example')
>>> db.at_post_create_script()
>>> wf_tool = self.portal.portal_workflow
>>> wf_tool.doActionFor(db, 'publish')
>>> xmlstring=f.read()
>>> db.importDesignFromXML(xmlstring)
>>> db.refreshDB()
>>> f.close()
25.
Thank you
● Questions ?
● Anybody interested in sprinting on Plomino ?
26.
Makina Corpus
For all questions related to Plomino,
please contact Éric Bréhault
eric.brehault@makina-corpus.com
Tel : +33 950 463 703
www.makina-corpus.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
Il manque :
- une liste de produits/services fin 2007
- une price list pour fin 2007
- le taux de pénétration prévisionnel espéré par cibles pour fin 2008,
- la rentabilité attendue d'ici fin fin 2008
- la définition, l'organisaiton et l'animation de la force de vente
-