Useful Resources on Plone.org

Open source projects like Plone already have documentation produced by the community. Sometimes, community-written manuals can be out-of-date or inaccurate, but they can also be extremely helpful.

The how-to portion of Plone.org covers lots of topics, both common and esoteric. There are hundreds of topics. Many topics are likely to interest only developers, but here are a few recent topics likely to interest ES Administrators:

• Plone 3 User Manual ( http://plone.org/documentation/manual/plone-3-user-manual ) gives a user-friendly introduction to creating and managing content. In-depth.
• Main Plone Documentation Page ( http://plone.org/documentation ) contains a good search box, with the ability to filter by release and end user.
• Using Add on Products ( http://plone.org/documentation/tutorial/third-party-products ) discusses how to evaluate new third party products.
• What Controls what you See ( http://plone.org/documentation/tutorial/where-is-what/tutorial-all-pages ) gives an introduction about how to modify each element in the Plone interface.
• Understanding Permissions and Security ( http://plone.org/documentation/tutorial/understanding-permissions ) explains how to use Plone roles and permissions to manage content.
• Set Up a Plone 3 Site with public and restricted content ( http://plone.org/documentation/how-to/setup-a-plone-3-site-with-public-and-restricted-content-1 ) offers an example of how to set up access and workflow in Plone 3.
• Customizing Viewlets ( http://plone.org/documentation/tutorial/customizing-main-template-viewlets ) covers how to assemble components which are called up on Plone pages.
• Introduction to the ZODB ( http://plone.org/documentation/tutorial/introduction-to-the-zodb/an-introduction-to-the-zodb ) describes what the Zope Object Database does and how it behaves.
• New Workflows in Plone 3 ( http://plone.org/documentation/how-to/new-workflows-in-plone-3 ) describes what workflows are and how they are implemented in Plone 3.
• Plone FAQ ( http://plone.org/documentation/faq ) is not very large, but it has some good introductory FAQs about system administration.
• Plone Error Reference ( http://plone.org/documentation/error ) explains a lot of python/Plone error messages.
• User's Guide to Plone ( http://www.plonebook.info/books ) is a Plone 3 book for end users. Available as a free PDF download.

Mailing Lists and Forums

Like other development communities, plone developers and system administrators are used to obtaining help via mailing lists, IRCs and forums.

Plone.org has many mailing lists at http://plone.org/support/lists, and plone-users probably receives the most attention.

Nabble reproduces questions for the mailing lists on their online forums (for example, here is the plone-users forum ), but you need to sign up for the mailing list before you can post.

Enfold Systems Support

Enfold Server comes with various support options (see http://www.enfoldsystems.com/Products/Server/Support ).

When you make a support ticket, you will usually be asked to provide a copy of your log files (usually the Z2.log, the zeo.log and the postinstall.log). You will also be asked to provide screenshots and your current version number.

A number of support tickets about installation involve user permissions and service user. (The Server Security and User Reference can help you be sure that the service user is configured correctly).

Many user authentication issues are not the result of problems with Enfold Server but the browser state and the sequence of signing on. To eliminate these causes, you should try the steps mentioned on the Troubleshooting Checklist . For extra certainty, it can help to go over the checklist twice to be sure everything was done correctly. (See also: single sign on on Windows).

You might also wish to check whether the issue or problem is a known issue. Check the list of known issues . Keep in mind that some bugs may be specific to a third party Plone product or Plone itself. These are not normally covered by support plans.

Enfold Systems provides two levels of support for Enfold Server. Here (in brief) is a description of the two levels.

Standard Subscription

• For systems where incidents could have significant impact on business operations and productivity
• 1 year of access to new releases, security fixes & Web support
• Unlimited number of support incidents
• 2-business-day response (9-6 Central Time M-F)
• 4-business-hour response with phone access for severe incidents

Basic Subscription

• For systems with less-critical support needs
• 1 year of access to new releases, security fixes & Web support
• Up to 3 support incidents
• 2-business-day response (9-6 Central Time M-F) for all issues