Plone-Tips

Adding new content to radiance-online.org

Presently radiance-online.org uses the Plone CMS for its website. 

Plone was chosen because it recognizes traditional html or preformatted plain text files as its pages, and allows entire file folders of pages and their linked media or binary files to be uploaded via a navigable WebDAV mount.

Plone allows you add and edit content through its back-end by mounting the site as a WebDAV drive and using drag and drop, or by making changes through its front-end using the web browser.  

Page names (which are taken from the <title> tag inside the html), navigational links in the left margin and above the the page content, and the websites look and feel are all added automatically.

If the time comes when you'd like to migrate away from Plone, you'll be able to retrieve your content through the WebDAV mount in the same manner that you were able to upload it.

First register and then log-in.

By mounting the Plone-based website as a drive by utilizing one of the WebDAV clients mentioned below one can drag and drop to upload individual files or entire folders of

.html , htm - core or static HyperText Markup Language

.rst - ReStructuredText markup language,

.txt - text files

and their linked content - (ie .jpg .tif .png .pdf .mov etc)

Simply mount the site via webdav at...

It actively processes .html .htm .txt .jpg .png and .tiff files into the zope database - sending all others straight to the filesystem with a uuid filename.

To edit existing content, you can open it using your preferred HTML editor.

Occasionally file-locking issues arise which will prevent you from saving your work.  To resolve this:

• Navigate to the concerned web page from the browser
• 'Edit' it without making changes
• Then 'Cancel' the edit

Performing these three steps will usually release the lock.

Often dragging the file over locally - editing - and then dragging it back can be effective if your WebDAV mount is behaving unpredictably.

Using the front-end of the website

Plone also allows you to edit content straight from the web browser after you have logged-in.

To add a new page, find the "Add new..." tab (towards the right of the page) then choose "Page" and  name it <somename>.html.

(Adding the .html suffix enables Plone to treat this like an html page rather than raw text.)

Select the "Edit' tab to edit using:

TinyMCE - the built-in javascript-based HTML wysiwyg editor ...

- Or depending on the 'Wysiwyg editor' setting in your 'Personal Preferences'

None - which provides a blank text field which will accomodate:

• pre-edited raw .html .htm - HTML by pasting into the text field with 'HTML' selected
  A basic html template page is provided here that can be used as a starting point.

• pre-edited raw .rst - ReStructured Text by pasting into the text field with 'reStructured Text' selected

• pre-edited raw .txt - plain text by pasting into the text field with 'Plain Text' selected

WebDAV Clients

<mountpoint> - as a user
https://radiance-online.org:444/Plone/Members/<your login id>

<mountpoint> - as an administrator
https://radiance-online.org:444/Plone

Windows

• My Network Places > Add Network Place >  < add mountpoint >
  

• or you can use WebDrive - Mounts and does everything correctly for $39.

Mac OS

• From the Finder > click on the Desktop  > type  'cmd-k' >  < add mountpoint >
• type cmd-shift-. (dot) to toggle hidden files in the Finder and delete them when finished editing.
  


• or you can use Transmit - Mounts and does everything correctly for $45.

HTML Editors

• SeaMonkey Composer https://www.seamonkey-project.org (preferred)
  
  
• Open a Plone html file straight from the File > Open File menu
• ctrl-e (cmd-e Mac ) to edit opened page
• ctrl-s (cmd-s Mac ) to save
  
  
• Blue Griffon http://bluegriffon.org is an actively maintained cross-platform WYSIWYG html editor. (less predicatble html)
  
  
• ...or any text editor if you are comfortable with basic HTML
  

Further information