python.org CMS

[Denis S. Otkidach]

On 8 Jun 2004, Aahz wrote:

A> The team for www.python.org is taking another crack at
A> considering a
A> content management system for handling the website's content.
A> This is
A> particularly important considering, for example, how far
A> beind we are in
A> posting job ads -- getting the community to do our grunt work
A> for us is
A> the primary motivator.
A>
A> Right now, Plone/Zope2 is the primary competitor simply
A> because it's
A> well-publicized, but none of us really has that much
A> experience with
A> websites whose core maintainers are going to be programmers.
A> ;-)  We'd
A> like to know if there are other packages available that can
A> do what we
A> want; we're more interested in getting information about each
A> package
A> than in package comparisons.  We're also interested in
A> hearing about
A> experiences creating custom systems.

I suggest using QPS (http://ppa.sf.net/#qps).  It's a set of
libraries to create custom CMS.  In simple cases you need just 2
scripts, one module with configuration and templates for the
site.

A> Here are the primary criteria that we're working with:
A>
A> The data must be stored in a plain text format that would
A> allow direct
A> access if the main system was not functioning.  This doesn't
A> necessarily
A> imply the ability to circumvent a web based layer by editing
A> text files
A> directly, though there does need to at least be an easy way
A> to export
A> and import such files for people who want to use a Real
A> Editor [tm].

QPS generates static pages of site with script running as cron
job and/or when data is submited in editor interface.  So the
data canbe accessed even when system code is briken.  In most
cases we use database backends, but it's easy to define own
filesystem-based storage with any structured text format.

A> Workflow is presumed to be a hierarchial publish reject model
A> (in other
A> words as simple as is possible to begin with).  We'll need

Workflow is not built-in, but it can be easily made just with
configuration.

A> both
A> coarse-grained and fine-grained security (giving people a
A> variety of
A> access levels to large and small sections of the site).

We have coarse security "from the box" and there is a way to
define own security system.

A> The system needs to work with browsers that have limited
A> functionality
A> (i.e. Lynx).

Certainly.  Some pages of editor interface use tables for indexes
in built-in themes, but we can use own templates for them if
needed.

And there one greate disadvantage - it lacks documentation.

Please let me know if you need more information.

Rgrds,

-- 
Denis S. Otkidach
http://www.python.ru/      [ru]