ruralmind

I recently wrote a simple plugin for Zine that integrates the YUI Rich Text Editor. Zine is a python-based blogging tool inspired by WordPress. A few notable people are actively using it. 

Thoughts on Kupu vs YUI Rich Text Editor:

• Integration of YUI was very straight forward, I did not consider using Kupu with Zine because it was not clear how it could be accomplished in a timely manner.
• Kupu's link tool is more straightforward. In YUI, you close the dialog window to complete the linking task. 
• Kupu's HTML is cleaner.
• Toggling between visual and code mode is an extension (though well documented) of YUI.
• The API documentation for YUI is excellent.

Here is a good tool for deploying Zine available from PyPi.  

Plone plugins?

Writing the plugin was straight-forward and fun. Since Zine provided a number of built-in plugins as part of the default installation, it was easy to abstract from the examples. I had to write very little code to get some functionality that I could immediately use. I think Plone could benefit from having a few plugins shipped by default. A really lightweight theming layer would be ideal, so people trying out Plone could get results very quickly.  Currently, with the bulk of the default theme is stored in CMFPlone which is a substantial chunk of code. I started using Plone in the 'bad days' when TTW + portal_skins provided the quick turn around that led to my continued interest in the software.

It is clear that maintaining the TTW infrastructure in Zope is labor intensive and no one is interested in keeping it going.  However, there is still a need for easy entry points into Plone, a way to deploy a meaningful customization quickly. I think projects such as jbot are a step in the right direction, a simple directory just containing template overrides with a minimal amount of wiring. It would be great is something like this makes it into Plone 4. 

 

Andreas Jung has created an egg based distribution of SignupSheet.  SignupSheet is an add-on product that allows site managers to create custom registration forms for events, workshops, fundraisers and other events that require online registration. Add Products.SignupSheet to your buildout to try it out.