ZopeSkel provides a collection of project templates for Plone and Zope development projects.
ZopeSkel uses the paster Python library internally.
For a typical Plone site development the following development path is recommended:
- Install ZopeSkel package to virtualenv, or otherwise isolated from system Python installation, on your local computer.
- Create a new Plone 4 development installation using the
plone4_buildout
template. - Create a new logic package for the content types, forms and logic of the site. This can be done using the Dexterity ZopeSkel template (included in
plone4_buildout
). - Create a new theme package for the site. This can be done using the XDV template (included in
plone4_buildout
). - Test and develop on your local computer until everything is perfect.
- Put created packages under source code sversion control (Subversion, Git).
- Create a Plone installation on the production server. Plone Unified installer is the preferred method.
- Install your site customization packages on the production server.
ZopeSkel can be installed in one of two ways: with buildout or with virtualenv.
Here are instructions how to include ZopeSkel as a part of your local buildout.cfg
.
- You can use zopeskel to add new projects to your buildout
src/
folder. - You can use code skeleton local commands to add more content to your package.
Add to your buildout.cfg
:
parts =
...
paster
zopeskel
[zopeskel]
recipe = zc.recipe.egg
eggs =
ZopeSkel
${instance:eggs}
[paster]
recipe = zc.recipe.egg
eggs =
ZopeSkel
PasteScript
PasteDeploy
${instance:eggs}
entry-points = paster=paste.script.command:run
After re-running buildout, you will have zopeskel
and paster
commands in the bin
directory of your buildout.
First, install virtualenv into your system:
easy_install virtualenv
Next, create a virtual environment with the new virtualenv
command:
virtualenv --no-site-packages --distribute zopeskelenv
Once virtualenv is finished, you can install zopeskel to your new virtual environment:
zopeskelenv/bin/easy_install zopeskel
Once this is complete, you will be left with zopeskel
and paster
commands in the bin
directory inside your virtualenv.
To see details of the available templates:
zopeskel --list
More info about how zopeskel works:
zopeskel --help
Creating a Plone 4 buildout using virtualenv ZopeSkel installation:
source zopeskelenv/bin/activate
zopeskel plone4_buildout yourfoldername
The folder created (yourfoldername
) can be checked in to the versioning system of your choice. It is now a portable, self-contained, ready-to-build Plone site. You can build the system at any time using the following:
cd yourfoldername
python bootstrap.py
bin/buildout
The plone4_buildout
recipe results in a self-contained version of ZopeSkel installed via the buildout method described above. It thus provides the zopeskel
and paster
commands inside its bin
folder. You can use these commands inside the buildout to create packages for your new Plone site:
bin/zopeskel plone3_theme src/plonetheme.yourcompanyid
The command will ask a few questions such as the desired package name and description, and output a complete package you can immediately start using. Interactive help is available by entering "?" as a response to any question.
In addition to project templates, the ZopeSkel system provides local commands. Local commands are context aware commands that help you to add more functionality to an existing ZopeSkel generated project.
To use local commands you need to first include the paster command in your buildout.cfg
as instructed above.
Starting inside your Plone buildout, first create a new archetypes add-on:
cd src
../bin/zopeskel archetype mycompanyid.mycustomcontenttypes
Next, change directories into your new package and invoke paster
to add a content type:
cd mycompanyid.mycustomcontenttypes
../../bin/paster
Usage: ../../bin/paster COMMAND
usage: paster [paster_options] COMMAND [command_options]
...
Commands:
...
... local commands:
addcontent Adds plone content types to your project
As you can see from the paster
command output, your new package supports a local command called addcontent
. You can use the addcontent
command to add new code to your package. As with both zopeskel
and paster
, you can use the --list
option to see what local commands are available in the context of the package you've created:
../../bin/paster addcontent --list
Available templates:
atschema: A handy AT schema builder
browserlayer: A Plone browserlayer
contenttype: A content type skeleton
form: A form skeleton
formfield: Schema field for a form
i18nlocale: An i18n locale directory structure
portlet: A Plone 3 portlet
view: A browser view skeleton
zcmlmeta: A ZCML meta directive skeleton
You can add an archetypes content type for managing lectures:
../../bin/paster addcontent -t contenttype LectureInfo
Then you can add schema fields to that content type:
../../bin/paster addcontent -t atschema
Local commands can be run as many times as needed to create your package. You can iteratively develop your content type, other content types, and more.
More info
Since version 1.5, ZopeSkel has tests. It's required to run these before you check in any changes you make. They can be run like so:
python setup.py test
If you are developing ZopeSkel itself, instructions to run ZopeSkel from source check are in TRUNK.txt
.
Issue tracker
Plone and ZopeSkel related documentation
Source code
Mailing List
Please contribute by submitting patches for what you consider 'best of breed' file layouts for starting Zope projects.