What's Working, What's Not

In this exercise, we considered five facets of the Plone experience, and worked in small groups to identify what is working well, what is not working well, and what is working elsewhere that should inspire us. Agreement is indicated by +3, +5, etc.

Installation + out of the box experience

Working Well

Buildout and buildout based install +16

Unified quick prototyping

Just Works +2

5 mins up and running a cms +10

Binary Installers +1

Local install/develop +3

    Cross platform/Universal Installer +2

    Easy to start Adding content +1 x2

    Windows Controller +7

    Range of Functionality +2

    Easy inviting to play with +1

Working elsewhere

SugarCRM Install TTW + with ratings + 3

PyPI +_1

PHP install experience

Oracle Apex

Typo3 has TTW install of add-ons +2

Drupal, Wordpress, setup wizards +1

    VMWare Appliance +1x2

    Sharepoint: Site themes +1

    Alfresco: Mass upload of content +5

    Some non really core products shippped/organized with the main product (Drupal)

    Pretty icons

    Adobe Flex (installing as a Flex app) (?)

Not Working Well

Eggs hard at first, ZCML slugs, localevn, develop

Old style vs new style products +5

differences between installers +2

OS package mgmt out of date +3

Dependency mgmt (buildout, generic setup)

Understanding buildout +3

Need profiles for Edu +6

ZCML +2

Need content skeletons +1

No Live CD Plone (or VM image) +1

Insecure default install

Inconsistent file locations across platforms +7

Please kill the access rule on windows +12

Lack of start/sopt tool to control zope instance on OSX +4

No backup OOTB +4

ZEO should be setup by default + 2

Buildout directory structure confusing

Buildout clobbers instead of failing

Zope welcome page and Plone welcome page

    Missing expected add ons (blogs,forums) +4

    Richer defaults ootb demo content +1

    Inconsistencies(ports)

    Non-standard unixy stuff

    No custom form generation +7

    More clarity about dev vs. demo, easier transition from dev to deployment +4

    Easier demo story +1

    Start UP/Profile wizard +8

    No X Platform controller

    steep early learning curve for buildout +1

    Looks like it is 2001 (graphic design) +6

    No ajaxy widgets +5

    Set of default skins +9

    No Virtual images

Deployment, Performance and Hosting

Working Well

Buildout +9

Good documententation

Squid + varnish work

We aren't in denial about performance +1

Entransit +1

Memcache

Windows installer

Unified install

Buildout is text and not GUI

ZEO Cluster OOB +2

Bones +2

Very secure deployments possible

Varnish or CacheFu

    Read Only/Demo Mode

    CacheFu helps +2

    Zeo +6

    Scales

    Easy to set up basic deploy +2

    Easy to have multiple instances

    easy backup

    good performance-tuning docs

    portable run anywhere (almost) +1

Not Working Well

Need to profile code for performance +12

Lack of up-to-date profiling tools (call profiler-esque) +1

Best practice guide for profiling

Buildout is textual not GUI

Mass deployment story

No cheap hosting - need better ecosystem +8

Squid + Varnish are hard to configure +4

Caching custom content types is hard

Can't cache logged in pages (?)

Upgrade/OOB products

Implement continuous benchmarking process +4

Buildout recipe index +7

Identifying hosting (quality, availability)

Staging solution +8

Alternate delivery mechs (static, entransit) +1

Promotion, visibility of (config option, predefined buildout) +3

Content export and import +15

Migration often a nightmare, best practices for migration unclear (in place vs export import) +8

Security practices need improvement, best practices +2

Bad (outdated) documentation conflicting +2

Best practices GS coverage and import/export + 10

Nightly benchmarks (lack of) +4

Lack of static deployment +22

Dump HTML to commodity server +4

Diagrams of common or typical deployment strategies +6

Python dependencies (ISP has different version)

Most sysadmins or ISPs won't host (No IIS or Apache) +6

Requires Cache

Backup/Restore impossible (?)

Memory usage +3

High writes problem

ZEO is Single Point of Failure +1

CacheFu no longer maintained +1

High Latency

Sys admin docs +1

Migration SUCKS +9

ZPT is slow +4

Delivery is slow +4

Scaling number of documents +1

Lack of clear purpose | Misuse of Plone (not social networking tool)

Lack of configuration management story +7

RAM cache / Multiple ZEO client get out of sync +1

Working Elsewhere

Demo site would be could

Pre configured VMWare or Live CD

Soyllent.com

LAMP

Hosting providers have 1 click install of Drupla, Joomla, Wordpress etc

Memcached +4

built-in reporting on resource usage +1

URL's can map to static files(eg. /news.html)

WSGI +3

WAR files

Repoze +15

Docs and Community Support

Working Well

Planet +4

ZopeSekl +3

IRC + 5

Docs getting better

More and better books

Plone user manual

PHC works +1

Sprints and conferences +3

Martin's book and Philips +4

General training and boot camps +6

Zope Book

Selected tutorials and rich doc archgen

Joels Humane CMS Presentation +4

Plone.tv

Clouseau +2

Docfinder Tab

PSC

ZMI Introspection +1

Not Working Well

Organization of docs and versioning =6

AT Docs outdated

API.plone.org +1

Prune old docs +10

No wiki as docs/inconsistent format

Improve user group support +2

No translations on plone.org

Not enough screencasts +5

Topic co-ordinators missing +3

Plone 3 Themeing tutorial +4

More examples +1

No way to request missing documentation, need feedback loop

Docs cannot replace mentoring +3

User groups

PSC (lacks ratings etc.) +11

The Zope Book +1

Related items (portlet, tags as, needed for plone.org/doc)

Entry guide by audience (designer, dev, emulator) +2

By version, audience

Big picture diagram, doc of the stack +10

Easing transition from one version to another

Quantity

Quality

IA Findability +8

Not defined paths

organized by role and task

Transition docs between versions +2

Can't find conf videos as docs +2

Promote local user groups

Inline documentation +3

Many docs assume Python even if the topic area (eg skinning) doesn't +2

Enhance plone.net +1

No global search across plone.org, .net, zope etc +1

Testable documentation

Search for docs

MacYet on irc

No certification +1

Lack of backwards compatability +1

Docs come after a release +4

Api docs +1

Working Well

IRC +2

Sprints +10

mailing lists

paste.plone.org

Blog community

Planet plone +1

Quantity

Videos from conferences

Longevity

Printed books +4

Testable docs +2

Conferences +6

Trainings +4

Bootcamps

Plone.net +2

More Sean Kelley

Working elsewhere

Apache.orgs versioned docs +2

Python.orgs +2

PHP Gives docs and examples

SQL

Django docs (especially coments) +2

Javadoc +1

Docfindertab no zope 3

The book (PHP)

Trails concept Java +1

Django docs

Start here +5

In Drupal: clear starting points

PHP.net promotes usergroups

Comments on API docs (php.net)

SQL Alchemy

Wiki docs +1

Generla use case tutorials +2

Screencasts evaluating products +4

Ubuntu mentoring

Drupal promoting subcommites +1

Launchpad

Self-documenting applications +2

Community and core development processes

Working elsewhere

Working Wellums no need to register

Drupal has barcamps with big speakers +2

Use of social netowrking

Good screencasts, quality ones +4

RoR site

PHP's annotated docs

BDFL

Time-based releases

Coordination of upgrade with upgrade of "core" add-ons (eg LinguaPlone, PloneBoard) +8

Distributed version control

Django is slow but very cautious checkin process

Working Well

Foundation +14

IRC +5

Mailing lists moderated well +1

PLIP, process good but need better implementation +2

Release management +3

Framework team

Team info is publicised

Sprints that benefit Plone core + add-ons +24

Google SOC +2

Ploneability - area specific event +1

Conferences and symposia +5

Great, fun, smart, nice people + pretty +12

International +2

User groups +3

PSPS +5

Culture of testing +5

Meritocracy +3 (reciprocity)

Easy to get started +1

Collective

Decentralized development process, can't be controlled by a single person or company +3

people want to help +2

informal mentoring of the next great developer

Not Working Well

hard to get started and give meaningful support "what are you trying to do"

Too much traffic in plone-user

Lack good feedbaack loop from end users +3

Hard to find out who is in charge for given subject area +1

Need to have integrator on framework team giving feedback +3

Duncan needs more help with Kupu +1

PLIPS should cover the integrator point of view +5

Not marketing to university students +4

Things pushed to CMF as not our problem

Designers | Plone devs | CMF devs | Zope devs (Wall between each) +10

Framework team don't say no often +5

Framework team needs delegation

Feature rumour mill +2

Links to plone.net from plone.org +2

Add on ratings and feedback +7

Doc team needs organisation +3

Archetypes maintenance organisation +5

Collective needs purging archiving +3

Zope.org +3

Culture of cleaning up and consolidating +4

Things are not pushed to CMF/Zope

Encourage more python developers +4

More IP Mgmt for core/collective (assistance)

Too much stuffing things in at the last minute of a release +1

Scheduling

Too many with commit access -1

Time commitments +1

Lack of benchmarking

Single ownership/no maintenance of core components

"pre deprecation" (announcement something is dead before stable replacement)
+6

tracking feature requests +1

common vision +10

adding things we know are going to be dropped

need smaller pieces to manage (many BDFLs) +3

lack of product review +3

addressing too many audiences at once +2

test (never enough) +1

Customization and Configuration

Working Well

TTW/TTZope customization +12

Resource registries +2

Paster/Buildout/ZopeSkel +19

Generic setup +6

Textmate zope plugin - not enough publicity +4

ZCML

LDAP Integration +1

ArchGenXML +5

Open ID +1

Browser views (developers)

Plone control panel +5

Placeful workflow +3

Security +4

Portal skins /skin layers +3

Customerize +2

Seperation of concerns

Choice of add-on products

DIYPloneStyle + tutorial

Filesystem development +8

FTP & Webdav

Content rules

Kupu +11

Clouseau +5

Not Working Well

Lack of TTW Content types +10

Themeing too complex +26

When security goes bad

Customerize UI bad +2

Too many uneven add ons +8

Configurable out of the box Web Svcs +20

No good tools like IDE et al

Standardize build types

More configurations, configlets for common cases +4

More generic setup coverage

AGX + Argo UML +2

DIY vs Paster confusion

Backwards compatibility +1

ZCML +1

Diff on GS profiles changes in control panel +1

Too many things on the + list

Generic setup doesn't roundtrip +3

Uninstall doesnt work +3

Upgrade doesn't work +4

Base properties hard to find

ZMI Workflow config

ZODB Cache settings +1

Lack of OAI

Customize look & feel requires python +6

Caching diagnostics too complex

Multiple ways to do something +8

FS needs polish +1

QuickInstaller +6

Plone is 1 size fits all

Customizing templates too hard +6

Auth +PAS is hard +1 x2(doc problem)

Finding where to change something +2

Migration +2

Content Importer +7

API Docs +5

Composite Page story +8

Working elsewhere

TTW Content type development +10

Wordpress themeing +4

Drupal profiles +4

Wordpress plugins +1

Django web svcs

Drupals 3rd party way

APT/RPM/Ports etc +3

Capistrano RoR +3

Liferay (template link to models)

JBOSS: Custom deployment

Stock Themes +6

Joomla Theming Tool

Most Java systems have very clear API's +2

WebError (in-browser debugger)