[Baypiggies] Is plone fo me?

[Shannon -jj Behrens]

On 9/8/06, Ken Seehart <ken at seehart.com> wrote:
> I am fairly experienced with Zope.  I have heard people complain that
> Zope is monolithic to the point of being annoying.  My experience is
> that Zope really isn't all that bad.  But from what I've seen so far of
> Plone, by skimming the documentation and attempting to play with it, I
> am starting to get the impression that Plone really is as monolithic as
> I originally thought Zope would be.  I'm hoping to hear otherwise.
>
> What I want to do:
>
> 1. Get complete control of the main look and feel.  I have implemented a
> Zope page template exactly as I want it.  The template is a finely tuned
> table with perfectly aligned graphics.  Plone seems to want to let me
> plug in bits and pieces to customize aspect of the look, but I need to
> actually control the arrangement of the entire page.  In fact, I don't
> think the final result will look much like a Plone page at all.
>
> 2. Allow users to add content by editing plain text.  The user should be
> able to select whether the page is a calendar event, a main menu page,
> etc, and automatically add a link to the appropriate list.  (this item
> is why I would look at Plone at all).  I will need to implement my own
> page templates with custom scripting to display certain lists.
>
> 3. I want to implement my own custom regular expression substitutions on
> the structured text content.
>
> Is Plone too shrink-wrapped for what I need?  Should I just stick with
> Zope and implement my own variation on existing structured text tools?
>
> Here's a link to my prototype: http://www.seehart.com/aikidosantacruz.org
>
> If you take a look at that link, you will notice that it will use a
> rather small portion of the features available in Plone.  What I think
> is annoying about Plone is that it looks like I will spend a bunch of
> time removing unused features from the main page!  The default Plone
> page is really fancy, but I would much prefer to start with an empty
> page, and that add what I need.  Note that the bottom portion of the
> menu will not be visible to non-authenticated users, who will be in the
> majority.  I have no use for things like user customizable skins since
> only a few people will have accounts, and the target audience will be
> anonymous read-only users.
>
> Plone looks like it has more than enough features for me.  I just want
> to start with a clean empty page, not the ridiculously excessive swiss
> army knife of the standard default page.
>
> Thanks,

My opinion is *not biased.*  I have my own Web framework (Aquarium),
but I also know Django, Zope, and Plone.  I agree that Plone is a good
fit for your needs.  I used Plone to build my church's Web site
<http://myallsaints.org>.  I agree with pretty much everything Steve
said.  I do think you should take the time to read the book.

Best Regards,
-jj