Mixing Plone and Django for explosive results

C³: Mixing Plone
and Django
for explosive results!

The requirements

● a modern e-commerce
platform
● with a good contents
story
● and advanced
community features

Plone alone... will get it done?

a good web CMS like Plone has no clue of:
● e-commerce needs
● advanced community features
no known Plone extension could convince
us and...
we didn't want to start any new Plone
project with this needs

The quest for a good solution

The Graal should:
● be python based
(we ♥ python!)
● not reinvent the wheel
● be open source
● have a community
behind
(we ♥ happy customers)

Attack of the ponies

We looked at Django:
● good and stable since
years
● with a strong and
passionate community
● had a proven
ecommerce solution
and a proven
community solution

Satchmo, the e-commerce

http://www.satchmoproject.com/
● feature rich
● flexible as we needed
● with a group of people really
using and improving it

Pinax, the community

http://pinaxproject.com/
● a suite of modules for community
purposes
● reuse what's already there
● good working example projects included

Why Plone then?

talking about web CMSs:
● python based
(we ♥ python!)
● not reinvent the wheel
● open source
● with a community behind
(we ♥ happy customers)
● "nothing compares to you"

It's a long way to the top

● integration, integration, integration
● choices, choices, choices
looking for sustainable and elegant
solutions

The Plone and Django dance

a coreographer's job
● Don't stomp on each
other's feet
● Don't do the same
things twice

The dance steps

● common theming via Diazo
● don't store the same data
twice
● let one see what the other
does

What about the users?

● CMS users are content
editors
● they do not mix with the
common people
● Users are common
across Django apps
● but not across Plone

I'm sure I had it somewhere

● Plone needs to read from
the database
● sqlalchemy? Duplication
of code

To import or not to import
django.db.models?
It is nobler in the code to suffer:
● The thousand errors of
circular dependencies
● Or to take arms against
settings.py, and by fixing that
end them
Hamlet did it wrong

Syncronizing the dancers

● Django handles the
transaction trasparently
via middleware
● Hook up the right
methods to Zope's
transaction machinery

I've got a fever, and the only cure is...
less code!
● Sharing the same logic
between Django and
Plone views
● Using django templates
in Plone
● That's the python, baby
(and you just have to
enjoy it)

Murphy's impedance

Some things we didn't quite
consider
● Internationalization and language
selection syncing
● Linking content between systems
● Paster vs nginx

Building the launch ramps

● Single buildout
● Paster+SQLite for
development
● Quick, pain-free setup
● PostgreSQL+nginx+uwsgi for
deployment
● More robust but also more
convoluted

Traps and dark pits

● The Content-Length
problem
● Aka “Hello nginx, I have
some bytes for you”
● Where's that cookie coming
from?
● An i18n tale of horrors

The duct-taped parts

● Static files and media files
● The slow agony of
settings.py

And in the end... they all lived on
github
● djc.recipe
● ~collective/collective.django

Towards the infinite, and beyond

● Integrating users
(PAS+repoze.who)
● Making
development
faster
● Managing themes
and files easily

Mixing Plone and Django for explosive results

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to Mixing Plone and Django for explosive results (20)

Mixing Plone and Django for explosive results