Theming Plone Using Diazo

The designer-friendly way to theme Plone

Diazo is the easiest way to theme a Plone site, requiring no knowledge of templates, Plone, or Python. In this class, each student will go through the entire process of theming a Plone site with Diazo, including creating the rules file, styling different sections of the site to use different templates, and deploying the site to a production environment.

This 1 day class assumes that students understand HTML/CSS and Firebug, and have knowledge of Plone's basic functionality. This is a hands-on class and students should bring a laptop computer.

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Syllabus

9:00 - 10:00

INTRODUCTION

  • How does Diazo work?
    • The rules
    • Matching expressions
    • Proxy settings

10:00 - 11:00

BUILDOUT

  • Diazo buildout configurations 
    • Local development
    • Production deployment
    • Apache vs. Nginx setup
  • Buildout - Exercise

11:00 - 12:00

STATIC THEMES

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

1:00 - 2:00

LIVE THEMES

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

2:00 - 2:30

COMPLEX USE CASES

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

2:30 - 3:00

ADVANCED FEATURES

  • Mashups
    • 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 and styling different sections of the site to use different templates.