Running Plone on Windows

by Mikko Ohtamaa — last modified Mar 30, 2009 11:45 AM
This document explains how to start and run the latest Plone (Plone 3.2.2) on Windows. The document explains post-installer steps how to start and enter into a Plone site. Note that Plone 3.2.3 and newer will have graphical user interface application to control Plone and these instructions won't apply anymore.

Install

First

  1. Run installer from plone.org download page
  2. Plone files will be installed in C:\Program files\Plone

In bin folder you'll find the executable files to control Plone instance.

Start

Go to C:\Program files\Plone in console:

cd "C:\Program Files\Plone\"

To start Plone in debug mode type:

bin\instance fg

You can interrupt the instance by pressing CTRL+C. This will also take down the Zope application server and your Plone site.

If you want to run Zope application server in production mode please follow instructions below.

To install Plone Window background service type:

bin\instance install

After this you can start Plone as a background service by typing:

bin\instance start

Enter to Plone

After a while, when the instance is running and listing to port 8080, point your browser to address on your local computer(localhost didn't work on my Vista):

http://127.0.0.1:8080

You'll see Zope front page. Click "Zope admin interface" link to log in using credentials you gave during running the Plone installer.

Click 'Root folder' on left sidebar. This is your Zope application server root folder. You can run several Plone sites under the same application server and you can edit the sites here.

Choose 'Plone site' from 'Add...ä dropdown menu on right.

You'll see a form asking the site id and title for a new Plone site.

Fill in id form field "Plone".

Press "Add Plone site"

Now point your browser to:

http://127.0.0.1:8080/Plone

Congratulations! You should be now logged in as ad admin to your new Plone instance and you'll see the front page of Plone.