3. Installation & Setup¶
Installing Plone¶
The following table shows the Python versions required by Plone from version 3.x to 5.0.x:
Plone | Python |
---|---|
3.x | 2.4 |
4.0.x | 2.6 |
4.1.x | 2.6 |
4.2.x | 2.6 or 2.7 |
4.3.x | 2.7 |
5.0.x | 2.7 |
(Hopefully you won’t have to deal with any Plone sites older than version 3.x.)
Plone 5.x requires a working Python 2.7 and several other system tools that not every OS provides. Therefore the installation of Plone is different on every system. Here are some ways that Python can be used:
- use a Python that comes pre-installed in your operating system (most Linux Distributions and Mac OS X have one)
- use the python buildout
- building Linux packages
- homebrew (Mac OS X)
- PyWin32 (Windows)
Mac OS X 10.8 - 10.10 and Ubuntu 14.04 come with a working default Python 2.7 built in. These are the lucky ones.
Most developers use their primary system to develop Plone. For complex setups they often use Linux virtual machines.
- OS X: Use the python buildout to compile python and homebrew for some missing Linux tools.
- Linux: Depending on your Linux flavor you might have to build python yourself and install some tools.
- Windows: Alan Runyan (one of Plone’s founders) uses it. A downside: Plone seems to be running much slower on Windows.
Plone offers multiple options for being installed:
- Unified installers (all ‘nix, including OS X)
- A Vagrant/VirtualBox install kit (all platforms)
- A VirtualBox Appliance
- Use your own Buildout
You can download all of these at https://plone.org/download
For the training we’ll use option 2 and 4 to install and run Plone. We’ll create our own Buildout and extend it as we wish. But we will do so in a vagrant machine. For your own first experiments we recommend option 1 or 2 (if you have a Windows laptop or encounter problems). Later on you should be able to use your own Buildout (we’ll cover that later on).
Hosting Plone¶
If you want to host a real live Plone site yourself then running it from your laptop is not a viable option.
You can host Plone...
- with one of many professional hosting providers
- on a virtual private server
- on dedicated servers
- on heroku you can run Plone for free using the Heroku buildpack for Plone
- in the cloud (e.g. using Amazon EC2 or Codio.com)
Ver también
- Plone Installation Requirements: https://docs.plone.org/manage/installing/requirements.html
- Run Plone on a 5$ plan: https://www.stevemcmahon.com/steves-blog/plone-on-5-a-month
- Where to host Plone: https://old.plone.org/documentation/faq/where-can-i-host-my-plone-site
Production Deployment¶
The way we’re setting up a Plone site during this class may be adequate for a small site — or even a very large one that’s not very busy — but you’re likely to want to do much more if you’re using Plone for anything demanding.
- Using a production web server like Apache or Nginx for URL rewriting, SSL and combining multiple, best-of-breed solutions into a single web site.
- Reverse proxy caching with a tool like Varnish to improve site performance.
- Load balancing to make best use of multiple core CPUs and even multiple servers.
- Optimizing cache headers and Plone’s internal caching schemes with plone.app.caching.
And, you’ll need to learn strategies for efficient backup and log file rotation.
All these topics are introduced in Guide to deploying and installing Plone in production.