This document discusses how Plomino can be used to easily build custom applications within Plone without extensive development knowledge. Plomino allows designing forms, documents and views entirely through the web interface using formulas to script behaviors. This overcomes limitations of only using content types which may not meet all requirements. Various real-world examples demonstrate how Plomino has been used to create diverse applications for tasks like project monitoring and contact management. The document addresses questions around deployment, maintenance, debugging and testing, noting Plomino supports import/export and usual Plone debugging and testing approaches.

1.
Plomino
How to easily build Plone custom applications
through the web
with small development knowledge
Eric BREHAULT – Plone Conference 2010

2.
Plone is so powerful
With no Zope/Plone development knowledge and good
Plone usage knowledge, you can build a powerful
intranet:
● you can structure the site easily,
● you can manage users access rights and workflows in a very
granular way,
● you can extend Plone standard features with a lot of excellent
products.

3.
But you might need a custom app
Your intranet is just perfect, but at some point, you need a
purchase management application.
Of course, you want this application to be integrated
into your intranet.
What can you do ?

4.
Create a content type ?
Plone is a CMS, a purchase request might be considered as a
content-type.
Let's go:
1 schema (made with ArchgenXML or Dexterity)
+ few collections
+ 1 workflow (made with uworth.northstar)
= approximately what you need

5.
Not that easy
Even if you do not necessarily need to be a developer to use
the mentionned tools, it will still imply you have a good
knowledge of:
● What a schema is.
● How Plone workflows work.
● How to deploy custom products.

6.
Will it fit the needs ?
Theoretiocally, the “Purchase request is just a content-type”
approach should work.
Practically, you will have to deal with hundreds of small
and funny extra-requirements:
● the request form has 2 specific fields when you order furnitures,
● the approval workflow is not the same if you belong to the HR
department, unless the manager is in vacation,
● the price list is provided in a monthly updated CSV file stored on a LAN
shared disk,
● Etc.

7.
Will it fit the needs ?
So, practically, you will have to heavily tune the basic
content-type behaviour.
And if you are not a Plone expert, you are lost.

8.
One could oppose that what has been described here is not a
simple application but a quite complex one.
If complex applications cannot be easily produced by non
Plone experts, that is fair enough.
My opinion:
● It is not a complex case, it is just the difference between
a theorical case and a real case.
● Most part of time, real applications are not content-
types.
● Non Plone experts must be able to produce real
business applications.
"Let no man ignorant of Plone enter here."
Plato

9.
● Plomino allows to develop, deploy and maintain custom
applications entirely from the Plone web interface.
● There is no schema, no data model, the application
designer does not have to worry about the persistence,
he/she will design forms, data will be saved accordingly.
● Everything can be scripted in order to adapt the
behaviour to fit the actual needs.
Plomino principles

10.
1.Add a new Plomino “database” as any Plone content-type,
➔ The database is the root element which support the entire
application.
2.Design some “forms” in TinyMCE,
➔ A form offers a layout and a set of fields.
3.Forms allow to create “documents”, or provide useful
screens (menu, search, reports, etc.),
➔ Documents are just a set of items. The items may match
the form fields, or not.
4.Create some “views” to list / filter / sort the documents in
different ways.
Create a Plomino application

11.
Forms are created using TinyMCE.
A form is just a freely editable rich text content where the
user can insert:
● Fields,
● Actions,
● Hide-when formulas,
● Sub-forms.
Create Plomino forms
DEMO

12.
A field can be:
● Editable: the user enters its value and it is stored in the
document,
● Computed: a formula computes its value and it is stored in
the document,
● Computed for display: a formula computes its value but is
not stored,
● Computed on creation: a formula computes its value at
creation time.
Field modes
DEMO

13.
Plomino provides a set of basic fields:
Text, Rich text, Number, Date/time, File attachement,
Selection list.
And also advanced fields:
● Names: to select Plone members.
● Doclinks: to create links between documents.
● Datagrids: to manage editable dynamic tables.
● Google chart and Google visualization: to create rich
charts or maps.
Different field types
DEMO

14.
Formulas are used to script the regular Plomino behaviour:
● Compute field values,
● Implement some custom actions,
● Hide some part of a form contextually,
● Process documents,
● Handle events,
● Handle redirections,
● Etc.
Formulas are written in Python, and are compiled as
Python scripts.
Formulas everywhere
DEMO

15.
2 applications:
● Flood alert SMS subscription
mechanism
Map display, connection to an
external realtional database,
export to CSV.
● Hydro-sensors maintenance
system
Visit planing, visit sheet
import/export.
Business cases
DEMO
Adour river flood forecasting agency

16.
Contacts database
Connexion with Plone
members.
Complex queries.
Large amount of contacts (>
8000)
Business cases
DEMO
International Council for Science

17.
Project monitoring
application
● Advanced reporting,
● Complex forms,
● Workflow.
Business cases
DEMO
United Nations Environment Programs

18.
Business cases
● Extremely various Plomino applications, built by extremely
various people:
– Archeologists,
– Lawyers,
– Real estate managers,
– Librarians,
– And even Plone experts.
● Any example in the room ?

19.
Is it serious ?
● Alexander Limi said yesterday: “Recruit people”.
● A TTW application builder like that is good for non-
experts.
● But can it meet development standard expectations ?
Let's see how Plomino handles:
● Deployment,
● Maintenance,
● Debugging,
● Testing,
● Content synchronization.

20.
Deployment and maintenance
● Plomino provides an import/export mechanism.
● The design (the application structure) can deployed over
HTTP from a server to another (even from between a Plone
3 and a Plone 4 instance).
● It can be exported as XML (and then imported back
somewhere else).
● The resulting XML can be managed in a SVN (or other)
repository.
● It allows partial import/export.
DEMO

21.
Debugging
● Plomino debug mode
● Debugging as usual:
– Zope debug mode
– Clouseau
– ZDB
– plone_log

22.
Testing
Testing as usual:
● Selenium
● Doctests
With doctests, the principle is to create a blank Plomino db,
then import your current XML design version, then run your
scenarios.
It can be then automated on Hudson.

23.
Testing
Import basic-example db
>>> f = open(os.path.join(dir, "samples", "basic-example.xml"))
>>> id = folder.invokeFactory('PlominoDatabase', id='basic-example')
>>> db = getattr(folder, 'basic-example')
>>> db.at_post_create_script()
>>> wf_tool = self.portal.portal_workflow
>>> wf_tool.doActionFor(db, 'publish')
>>> xmlstring=f.read()
>>> db.importDesignFromXML(xmlstring)
>>> db.refreshDB()
>>> f.close()

24.
Testing
Scenario
>>> browser.open(base_url+'/basic-example')
>>> 'Birthday' in browser.contents
True
>>> browser.getLink('Birthday').click()
>>> browser.getControl(name='personName').value = 'Eric'
>>> browser.getControl(name='birthDate').value = '1974-10-20 00:00'
>>> browser.getControl(name='personCategory').value = ['Friend']
>>> browser.getControl(name='plomino_save').click()
>>> '20-10-1974' in browser.contents
True
>>> browser.open(browser.url+"/EditDocument")
>>> browser.getControl(name='personCategory').value = ['Relative']
>>> browser.getControl(name='plomino_save').click()
>>> browser.open(base_url+'/basic-example')
>>> browser.getLink('All birthdays').click()
>>> 'October 20' in browser.contents
True

25.
Thank you
● Questions ?
● Anybody interested in sprinting on Plomino ?

26.
Makina Corpus
For all questions related to Plomino,
please contact Éric Bréhault
eric.brehault@makina-corpus.com
Tel : +33 950 463 703
www.makina-corpus.com