Plone & Enfold Differences (In a Nutshell)

(If you haven't worked with Plone before, read this Plone Overview).

For those already familiar with Plone, here are some key differences between Plone and Enfold Server.

1. Enfold Server is configured to start automatically on the Windows machine. (On Linux, you have to write a startup script or run this manually).
2. In Linux/Plone you configure Zope clients by editing Zope.conf and ZEO.conf. You can still do this on Enfold Server. However, many of these same tasks can be done more easily by using the Encontrol GUI utility. (See Using the Encontrol utility for system administration tasks).
3. ES includes an extra configuration file in /client/etc called enfold.conf. You would edit this file if you want to change Process Affinity (see below).
4. On Linux, you need to run a script to create an emergency Plone user. On Enfold Server, you can do this by using the Encontrol utility.
5. On Apache/Plone, you need to set up proxying to map your URL (either with VHM or Apache rewrite rules). You also need to set up a caching server (with Squid or Varnish, etc) to improve performance. Enfold Proxy handles both tasks and works with Enfold Server. (Read more about Enfold Proxy).
6. Enfold Server integrates into Windows. The Windows service user running the Plone service can be a domain user (and can authenticate through Active Directory). Enfold Server can be restarted/stopped using Services on the Windows control panel. (See What is a Service User?)
7. Although Enfold Server reports the same logs as Plone (Z2.log, event.log and audit.log), you can configure/schedule them using the Encontrol utility and Windows Scheduled Tasks. (See viewing log files).
8. Enfold Server installs with a backup script and database packing script which are run at regular intervals.
9. Although Enfold Server lets you create more than one Zope client, you can only create one ZEO server (and thus one ZODB) per machine. (Read more about ZEO).
10. Enfold Server includes several debugging tools for Windows, most notably Plone debug client which lets you interact directly with the ZODB while the site is running. (See Plone debug client)
11. Compatibility. Enfold Server 4.0 supports upgrades from Enfold Server 3.0. Also, it supports ZODB imports from Plone 3.0. (Read more about upgrading).

Enfold-specific products

Enfold Server (ES) offers not only a way to run Plone in a Windows server environment, it offers additional features as products. These products are put inside the Products directory by default. You can enable/disable/configure these products with the Site Setup link when logged in as Administrator to the website.

Chasseur is the product to set up caching profiles in Enfold Server (installed by default). This product is required to set up caching and improve site performance. (Learn how to set up caching profiles). Unless you are installing a separate caching product like CacheFu, you should probably keep this enabled.

Plasma is a product to allow you to set up authentication profiles. This lets you use domain authentication, LDAP, single sign on, etc. (Read more about authentication profiles ).

ShellEx Server is a Plone product created by Enfold which enables support for Enfold Desktop (a tool that helps content creators who run Windows). Although available as a free download for generic Plone installations, it is installed by default for Enfold Server. See http://www.enfoldsystems.com/Products/Desktop The Plone site setup has a configuration menu for global Enfold Desktop settings (see Using Enfold Desktop).

IFilter Integration is a feature that lets uploaded files to be automatically indexed.(Read more about using IFilters).

Enfold Theme is a set of styles and colors designed by Enfold. It is included as a separate proprietary product which enhances the default Plone theme. Because it does not have all the components of a Plone theme, it will not show up as a separate theme choice in Plone Site Setup --> Themes. To deactivate this Enfold-customized theme, log in to Plone and go to site setup > Add/Remove Products and uninstall the Enfold Theme. Alternatively, if you wish to activate/reactivate these theme customizations, simply go to Add/Remove Products and install the same product. (Read more about creating/editing Plone themes on plone.org http://plone.org/documentation/phc_topic_area?topic=Visual+Design).

FileTemplate lets you upload a binary or text file as a template for use as a content type. (Read more about file templates).

Zadoa is a product created by Enfold which lets Plone connect through ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) to a sql databases. (Read more about using Zadoa)

Info Tool (the Enfold Error Reporting product in your Products directory), is a tool for reporting error and debug information. This tool can provide useful debug information for developers, but it should be turned off when running a production site to improve performance. (You can reinstall it later if you would like). To uninstall, go to Site Setup > Add/Remove Products.

Processor Affinity

Enfold Server allows more flexibility by allowing processor affinity. This allows you to specify which process the ZEO client should be using, allowing you to spread out the load more efficiently on a box.

Note: this feature provides a small performance boost but is not relevant to servers that have multicore processors.

You can add the variable ZOPE_PROCESS_AFFINITY to the environment or to the zope.conf configuration file. The configuration file is found in the client directory, at:

C:\Program Files\Enfold Server\Client\etc\zope.conf

The following example shows how to bind the Zope process to processor 1:

<environment>
  ZOPE_PROCESS_AFFINITY 1
</environment>

Note: the processor affinity starts at 1, not 0. So on a two processor computer, you could choose between 1 and 2.