OnceAndFuturePTK

Abstract

This document is an "inception" document, outlining the charter and goals for DigitalCreations? proposed initiative to bring the PortalToolkit? to fruition.

Charter

The charter of this project is to build an open-source content management system upon the core of the existing PTK. In particular, the main deliverable will be a "product" (as distinct from a "platform" such as Zope), usable "out-of-the-box" in the CMS / WebPortal? / KnowledgeManagement? market.

Goals

Collimation
- it's a "product", not a "platform",
- aimed at the ContentManager?, not the WebDeveloper?,
- requiring little or no configuration to get working,
- "self-revealing" to the ContentManager?,
- establishing clearly-delineated roles for its users.
Communication
- Foster the community which has formed around PTK, build on their contributions, and ensure they win, too.
- Improve and formalize our process for working in a fishbowl.
- Reduce "barriers to entry" by embracing standards and conventions
Credibility
- Achieve "shrink-wrap" credibility in the ContentManagementSystem? market.
- Leverage Zope's architectural strengths to position the product favorably against its competition: Vignette, Interwoven, Spectra, etc.

Services

The CMS/PTK will provide a coherent set of services to the ContentManager?.

Membership
- Online signup
- multiple user sources
- home folder
- personalization
Cataloging
- Fielded indexes
- Full-text indexes
- Topics, qua "virtual folders"
- Transactional, therefore automagically in synch
- Role-based results
Workflow
- Pluggable WorkflowModel

Integration
- Object-relational, LDAP, SMB, WebDAV?
Syndication
- RSS
Security
Clustering

Comments

This is exactly what I have outlined on http://zope.launchpoint.net/Scotts If you download my abstraction model .pdf, you can see what I am proposing. I have already started to implement some of this into the PTK with ZopeFish. - Scott B. I have also started a ZWiki that is about Zope Fish and the abstraction model at ZFwiki