PloneArticle

PloneArticle is a new content type for Plone. It offers you the same features as the standard Document content type you already know from Plone, but in addition it allows you to join attachments and images directly to the document.

Management Tabs:

• Attachments :

  In this tab, you can add file attachments (pdf, doc, zip, ... etc.) from your file system so readers can download them. All attachments are uploaded and become a part of the PloneArticle object. They are even fully indexed together with the other text fields of the document.

  In the view mode, click on the preview link to have a quick preview of the attachment in your browser.

• Images:

  In this tab, you can add images (jpg, gif, png, ... etc.) from your file system so readers can view them displayed next to your article. All images are uploaded and become a part of the PloneArticle object. Their description is fully indexed together with the other text fields of the document.

  When a PloneArticle is viewed, thumbnail images are displayed next to the article text. The layout depends on the display model you choose in the model tab, which is discussed next. A click on the image displays a popup window that contains the image at its original size. Display order of images can be changed by using the arrows next to the thumbnails.

• Model:

  You can specify the model to be used to display the article. The difference between the models are the order and position used for the images and attachments.

• Edit

  In the edit tab, you can use the wysiwyg editor for editing the main text of the PloneArticle. (You need the VisualEditor Product installed and activated for this feature to work) The wysiwyg editor offers multiple tools to structure your text, colorize it, insert image or link. Very simple to use, it looks like an ordinary text editor (Microsoft Word for example), so beginners can use it. You can quickly copy and paste text from a word file or another web page into the editor without completely loosing the page style. For expert users, or users that know how to write structured markup, editing an article is possible in pure html mode.

Articles summary

A Page Template called 'PloneArticleSummary' is provided as an example to have a brief summary of the five most recent published articles in a website, along with their first image if available.

Lock

Lock is a quick action. When an article is locked, only the user that has locked it, can edit it. (In case it is shared with other users)

Portal_article

This tool is in the ZMI. Click on the Property tab. You can :
- Configure max size of attachments (image and other).
- Allow a preview link.
- Choose and add new model.
- Determine the available text format of your article.
- Enable article lock.

PloneArticle has been designed by the Ingeniweb team.

And, of course, it's Open-Source (GPL licence).

PloneArticle is a new content type that can be added by authorised users in a folder.

After having selected it in the items list, the user will have to fill in some basic information, such as the title, the description and the body text. The body text can be written with an editor. To understand how to create an article and learn to use the editor, we advice you to refer to its documentation included in the end-user Plone documentation.

Indexing in the ZCatalog :
When added, an article is referenced in the ZCatalog. This means : its text, title, meta information but also the information concerning its attachments. If you have created an article with a pdf attachment, the search will also look for the text into the pdf file.

Addition for new content types developers :
There is a module called BaseArchetypesArticle.py that contains a base class called 'BaseArchetypesArticle'. If you want to implement an Archetypes-based content type that features images and attachments as PloneArticle, you just have to subclass this base class into your own product. This requires Plone 2 and Archetypes 1.2.2 or later.

**Note :** This addition does not impact the PloneArticle content type. You can ignore this module if you don't have the need mentioned above.

PloneArticle is shipped as a tarball for Plone. See The Ingeniweb Projects for more information.

Official releases

Releases are now hosted by SourceForge. The latest release can always be found here .

• 2.04 (2004/06/23) : Add discussable property to PloneArticle
• 2.03 (2004/05/05) : New models available
• 2.0 (2004/03/17) : Plone2 compatibility Lock support
• 1.1 (2003/10/21) : Created a PloneArticleSummary template to explain usage of getFirstThumbTag() script. Improved cacheability of thumbs. Minor fixes on models. Now works without ImageTagHotfix.
• 1.0 (2003/09/17) : Pretty models management Upload of unindexable documents (ie. protected PDFs, ...) now works with latest ZAttachmentAttribute version.

CVS

You can checkout the CVS anonymously with the following commands:

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ingeniweb login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ingeniweb co PloneArticle

You can browse CVS at Sourceforge .

Dependencies

You need to install the following packages:

ZAAPlugins 0.2 or higher : here

ZAttachment Attribute 0.3 or higher : here

• Why have i to install ZAttachment and ZAAPlugins ?
  The first one manages the attachments and the second allows you to see icons related to attached files.
• How can i add a PloneArticle ? Under the Plone site, in a folder of Plone where you have the rights. Select PloneArticle in the list of item and click 'add item'.
• Why does the wysiwyg editor not appear ?
  Depending on the wysiwyg editor you have installed, it can only be used with Internet Explorer (Epoz is working fine with IE and Mozilla latest version). If you are using it, check your personnal setting to see which default kind of editor you have chosen (text or editor).
• Can i edit my article after writing it ?
  Yes, just as with any another Plone document.
• Why after a copy paste from a Microsoft Word file, is the rendering of my article unordered ?
  It is recommended to do an html tidy to clean the html code. You should consult the Plone end-user documentation (only available in french) for more information.
• How can i add a new PloneArticleModel ?

  You should create it using an already existing model template. Place it somewhere in the plone skin path (for ex : PloneArticle/skins/PloneArticle)

  The first part of the template (in the <div class="description">) is the description of what your model is proposing to users. It is also adviced to furnish an image representing a preview of the model template.

  The second part (in <div metal:define-macro="Plone2ArticleModel">) is the layout that will be used. Note that the metal:define-macro="PloneArticleModel" (or metal:define-macro="Plone2ArticleModel") is VERY important. It is used to recognize a new model and propose it to users. Don't forget that css for Plone 1 and Plone 2 are different.

  Enable user to choose this model by selecting it in the portal_article.

Here are some links of interest regarding PloneArticle or other assorted tools.

• This document on the web;
• PloneArticle API Documentation (using APIDoc);
• The project download page to keep up-to-date with latest PloneArticle releases;
• README.txt : the PloneArticle README file
• CHANGES : the top-level changes file
• ChangeLog : the ChangeLog file, auto-generated from cvs