Installation & Setup#

Installing Plone#

The following table shows the Python versions required by Plone from version 3.x to 5.2.x:

Plone

Python

3.x

2.4

4.0.x

2.6

4.1.x

2.6

4.2.x

2.6 or 2.7

4.3.x

2.7

5.0.x

2.7

5.1.x

2.7.9

5.2.x

2.7.14 or 3.6+

(Hopefully you won't have to deal with any Plone sites older than version 4.3.x)

Plone 5.x requires a working Python 2.7 (or Python 3.6+ for Plone 5.2.x) and other system tools that not every OS provides. The installation of Plone is different on every system. Here are some ways that Python can be installed:

  • use a Python that comes pre-installed in your operating system (most Linux Distributions and macOS have one)

  • use the python buildout

  • building Linux packages

  • Homebrew (macOS)

  • PyWin32 (Windows)

Most developers use their primary system to develop Plone. For complex setups they often use Linux virtual machines.

  • macOS: Use the system python and Homebrew for some missing Linux tools.

  • Linux: Depending on your Linux flavor you might have to install Python 3.7 yourself and install some tools.

  • Windows: Alan Runyan (one of Plone's founders) uses it. A downside: Plone seems to be running slower on Windows.

Plone offers multiple options for being installed:

  1. Unified installers (all 'nix, including macOS)

  2. A Vagrant/VirtualBox install kit (all platforms)

  3. A VirtualBox Appliance

  4. A Windows installer

  5. Use your own Buildout

Visit the download page to see all the options.

For the training you will use option 2 or 5 to install and run Plone. We will create our own Buildout and extend it as we wish. If you choose to do so you will run it in a Vagrant machine.

For your own first experiments we recommend option 1 or 2 (if you have a Windows laptop or encounter problems). Later on you should be able to use your own Buildout (we will cover that later on).

See also

Hosting Plone#

If you want to host a real live Plone site yourself then running it from your laptop is not a viable option.

You can host Plone...

  • with one of many professional hosting providers

  • on a virtual private server

  • on dedicated servers

See all the ways you can set up Plone

See also

Production Deployment#

The way we are setting up a Plone site during this class may be adequate for a small site — or even a large one that's not very busy — but you are likely to want to do much more if you are using Plone for anything demanding.

  • Using a production web server like Apache or Nginx for URL rewriting, SSL and combining multiple, best-of-breed solutions into a single web site.

  • Reverse proxy caching with a tool like Varnish to improve site performance.

  • Load balancing to make best use of multiple core CPUs and even multiple servers.

  • Optimizing cache headers and Plone's internal caching schemes with plone.app.caching.

And, you will need to learn strategies for efficient backup and log file rotation.

All these topics are introduced in Guide to deploying and installing Plone in production.