Syllabus: Theming Plone using Deliverance and xdv

Prerequisites

This course assumes that students understand HTML/CSS and Firebug, and have knowledge of Plone's basic functionality. No knowledge of Python or Zope Page Templates is required.

This is a hands-on class and students should bring a laptop computer.

9:00 - 10:00

Introduction

    * How do Deliverance and xdv work?
          o The four rules
          o Matching expressions
          o Proxy settings
    * What are the differences between Deliverance and xdv?
          o When should I use one over the other

10:00 - 11:00

Buildout

    * Deliverance buildout configurations
          o Local development
          o Production deployment
          o Apache vs. Nginx setup
    * Buildout - Exercise

11:00 - 12:00

Static Themes

    * Using static HTML/CSS files as the template
          o Rules file setup
          o Buildout location
          o HTML guidelines
    * Static theme - Exercise

1:00 - 2:00

Live Themes

    * Using a live site as the template
          o Rules file setup
          o Possible issues
    * Live theme - Exercise

2:00 - 2:30

Complex Use Cases

    * Multi-design theming
          o Applying multiple designs to the same site
    * Multi-site theming
          o Applying the same design to several backend web services
          o Wordpress, Trac, Plone, etc.
    * Multi-design, multi-site theming - Exercise

2:30 - 3:00

Advanced Features

    * Mashups
          o PyQuery
          o Pulling in content from various external sources onto a single page
    * Mashups - Exercise

3:00 - 5:00

Site Theming Exercise

Each student will select a theme among a selection of static HTML/CSS themes, and we will walk from start to finish through the entire process of theming the Plone site, by creating the rules file, styling different sections of the site to use different templates, and finally deploying it to a production environment.

Sections