ZopeCMF

Zope Content Management Framework

I considered using this with Cmf Wiki instead of Zwiki for this WebLog. So far it hasn't felt sufficiently useful and fully-baked for me to work with. Here's a log of my attempts...

Mar 27 '01

  • install 2.3.1b3 (just save old site in renamed subfolder)

  • load CMF(1.0b) products

Mar 28

  • not clear on usage of Topics: <http://cmf.zope.org/doc/admin/Adding Topics To The Beta>

  • created "CMF Site" object id=ThoughtFlux; edit configuration screen

  • start browsing documentation: http://cmf.zope.org/doc

  • find that on CMF site, trying AddToFavorites doesn't work!

  • basic content author docs: <http://cmf.zope.org/doc/user/Basic Content.txt>

Mar 29

  • stop worrying about documentation, just try adding some content.

  • type=News:

    • note that all types require an ID to be defined, like a name/URL. Which is kinda weird/annoying. Are users going to get annoyed when they try a simple entry ID ("AOL") and it gets rejected for non-uniqueness? Are site editors/webmasters going to be annoyed by IDs with spaces or other punctuation in them?

    • Fields are Title, Description, Subject. Jeez, none of them sound like the body of the blurb. Maybe use the first few words as the Title, then slide rest into Description? Put a keyword in Subject? Ah, these are just Meta, you enter them then get a next screen with a Body field! The Description became the Lead-In.

    • can Structured Text be used in all fields?

    • status apparently starts as Private: you have to submit it for Review. Then it becomes Pending. Have to figure out how to Review/Accept it.

Then some new attempts in Sept'01 on my iMeme server

  • get instrux http://cmf.zope.org/download/CMF-1.1/INSTALL.txt

    • confirm appropriate Zope version running
  • get tarball

  • get Win S C P for doing file transfers

    • can't log in; turns out I never changed my re-defaulted passwords from the server change in July'01.

      • get Pu T T Y, try to log in with that, can't; this confirms that I have a password problem. Search emails, find references, fix passwords
  • connect

    • try to transfer, keep getting denied; check out Newbie Journey page (http://imeme.net/wiki/Newbie Journey), realize I have to do a 'chown' on directories so that non-root id/pw will work.

    • copy over tarball (into /usr/local/zope/instance/Products)

  • back to Pu T T Y

    • go into folder where I put tarball, do tar to unzip it
  • restart Zope: nope

  • turns out I mis-interpreted the instructions: just within Products you need the individual CMF* subdirectories, not the CMF owner directory with the subdirectories underneath. Ultimately I left the whole tree within Products and did an ln -s to the subdirectories.

Work in CMF

  • Add 'CMF Site' at 'webseitz' called 'private'

  • configure site (not carefully, need to revisit email settings)

  • go out of management screen, use direct new URL

  • choose 'Folder contents' from sidebar. (First time, all you see is the 'Members' folder.)

  • Hit 'New...' button. When use 'Document' vs 'News Item' types?

    • sounds like not much

    • let's try 'News item' first for some diary entries.

      • what 'ID' do I want to use?

        • ignore it, get sequential integer (would be nice/easy, but not supported, could try to track numbers myself)

        • use a Wiki Name, hoping that C M F Wiki will point to it. But that requires knowing what you're going to say before you write it.

      • other fields

        • Title (this appears in the News box)

        • Subject (haven't found this used anywhere) (it appears this is typically used as list of keywords; supposedly a dictionary of values can be set up with the 'portal_metadata' tool.

        • Description (Dublin Core.Description) (also used as the Lead-in paragraph) (I guess a short item might use this only) (this appears when you hit the recent-news link, and also when you View the individual entry)

        • Body (not on initial creation screen, get there with Change/Edit)

        • dates (see 'Edit all metadata' link on 'Edit metadata' page)

          • see 'Creation Date' and 'Last modified date', but can't edit them

          • can see and edit 'Effective Date' and 'Expiration Date'

    • doesn't appear until you hit the 'Publish' button

    • hey, doesn't seem to render like Structured Text!

      • after playing with values for metadata Format, and various other things, came to preliminary conclusion that news items can't use Structured Text! Posted to list asking for confirmation.
  • consider member issues for a moment

    • for public portal, do I want my userID to be Bill Seitz so it's a Wiki Name?

    • more importantly, want private portal to be private! If I turn off Anonymous permissions to View in the folder, then I can't even log in, since I can't View the Login form. Posted question to list Sept19.

  • try adding a Document

    • has radio button to toggle Structured Text

    • has a Description field, never flagged as a "Lead", as in News. Doesn't seem to appear anywhere.

    • after Publishing, doesn't appear in News listing. (So I guess you'd use a News item to blog the document. Or manually add it to the Home page.)

    • if I can get Structured Text to work for a News item, is there really a need for Documents, or do I prefer to just use Wiki for document? (Think about my current "static" documents, would I like them to be Wiki?)

      • I'd probably make the portal home page as a Roadmap to key wiki pages. Then maybe have a box that pulls part of RecentChanges (last n pages updated).
  • next step: install C M F Wiki

    • ugh, have to get from CVS

      • see [day 1 notes from Zope Zen](http://www.zopezen.org/S Dot/999364621/index_html)

        • see also [day 2](http://www.zopezen.org/S Dot/999838082/index_html) on skins, [day 3](http://www.zopezen.org/S Dot/1000876616/index_html) on workflow and metadata
    • just noted that my public space on http://cmf.zope.org support C M F Wiki. But I don't want to start relying on that server for anything...

  • I wonder if I should be using the Blark product? Or Swishdot, which is apparently in the Squishdot CVS?

  • tried posting questions to CMF list, got no answers. Now I'm mad. Should I rethink this? While zwiki would be great for bigger thoughts, it wouldn't solve my blogging problem.

  • trying to get C M F Wiki via CVS

  • before figuring out how to install C M F Wiki, decided to try the one available in my member space on CMF site. Created the C M F Wiki, but then couldn't edit any pages. Emailed shane, since his ID was mentioned in source of error code.

  • also thinking about how to migrate zwiki pages to C M F Wiki. Got reply to see extensions/migrate.py


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