Plone at Harvard-SEAS
World Plone Day 2009
Cambridge, MA
Michael Trachtman - Project Manager, Jazkarta
Eliza Grinnell - Project Manager, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied
Sciences
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Overview
Harvard SEAS - Intranet + Web Site Redesign
•Business Objectives
•SEAS' Requirements and Plone's Capabilities
•Site Architecture
•Current Project Status
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Business Objectives
Develop integrated suite of three sites, each with different goals
and audiences
•Public Site, Intranet, Subsites
Overarching Goals
•Develop with a scalable CMS
•Use familiar open source tools
•Develop an integrated yet flexible directory
•Offer a robust site and directory search tool
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Intranet
Directory and site search
Internal news, events and
important announcements
Department landing pages
FAQs and How-tos
Policies and procedures
Repository for shared
information
4

Public Site
Site redesign with a focus
on research
User-targeted content
(prospective students,
alumni, partners)
Highlight activity via news
and events
Directory/site search
Organized resources by
research area
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Subsites
Provide microsites for faculty and labs
•Accessible for the technically challenged
•Separate visual theme with some customizability with
adherence to university standards
•Separate access control specifications
•Online procurement
•Shared infrastructure
6

Subsites - Examples
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Software Architecture
Open Source
Virtualized Infrastructure
Scalable
High Availability
pound
Repeatable Deployment
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Software Architecture - The Stack
Browser browser clients
internet
Presentation Service
Cache Service
Theming Service
Service
Load Balancing Service Manager
web server 1
plone-fe-0.seas.harvard.edu
frontend
Service
Application Service Directory Service
Manager
application server 1
directory server
plone-zope-0.web.private
Service
Database Service Manager
database server 1
plone-zeo-0.web.private
backend
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Software Architecture - The Stack
Browser Browser browser clients
internet
web server 2
plobe-fe-1.seas.harvard.edu
• HTTP:80
Presentation Apache
Service
• HTTPS:443
• HTTP:8000
Varnish
Cache Service
• HTTP:8889 • HTTP:9999
Deliverance
Theming Service
• HTTP:8220
Service
Pound
Load Balancing Service Supervisor
Manager
web server 1
plone-fe-0.seas.harvard.edu
frontend
application server 2
plone-zope-1.web.private
application server 3
plone-zope-2.web.private
application server 4
plone-zope-3.web.private
• HTTP:8222 • HTTP:9999 • LDAP:389
Service
Zope Client
Application Service Directory Service
LDAP
Supervisor
Manager
application server 1
directory server
plone-zope-0.web.private
database server 2
plone-zeo-1.web.private
active passive
host
host resource resource
• HTTP:8221 • HTTP:9999
Service
ZEO Server
Database Service Supervisor
Manager
failover
active
connection
connection
database server 1
plone-zeo-0.web.private
backend
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Current Status
Launch Dates
• Intranet - January 2009
• Subsites - April 2009
• Public Site - Q2 2009
Upcoming Enhancements
• News management tools
• Alternate subsite themes
• Improved multimedia integration (video, photos)
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Resources
Events
On the Web
• 2009 Plone Symposium East
• Plone.org
http://www.plone.org
May 26-29, Penn State University
• Plone.tv - “education”
http://plone.tv/tagging/tags/ http://weblion.psu.edu/events/plone-
education symposium-east-2009
• WebLion operates a Plone-for-
education portal (primarily for PSU
folks, but great general info)
http://weblion.psu.edu/
• Plone.net - http://plone.net/sites/
sites/?industries:list=Education
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Questions? Thanks!
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