Plone distributions

Added in version Plone: 6.1

A Plone distribution is a pre-packaged version of Plone that includes specific features, themes, modules, and configurations. It is a convenient way to get a specific type of website up and running quickly, as the distribution includes everything needed to run that type of site.

See also

To create your own distribution, see Create a Plone distribution.

Built-in distributions

Plone comes with two built-in distributions, which correspond to the two Plone user interfaces.

plone.volto

Create a Plone site with the Volto frontend.

plone.classicui

Create a Plone site with the Classic UI frontend.

Third-party distributions

You can create your own distributions to suit your needs.

See also

For a how-to guide, see Create a Plone distribution.

For example, a Plone consulting agency can create a distribution demonstrating its favorite setup for Plone. This would contain the add-ons that they usually add in each project, including example content. With this, the agency can create a fully configured Plone site filled with content for a potential client.

Alternatively, an agency or implementer can create a distribution for specific project. This could create a site with all add-ons activated and configured for this project, including example content, and optionally users and groups. During the development phase of a new project, all developers would use this to create a fresh site locally so that everyone has the same configuration and content.

Custom Plone distributions can be distributions for use by others. Examples of third-party Plone distributions include:

• SENAITE

• Quaive

• Portal Modelo

• Portal Padrão

Related packages

The implementation of distributions in the Plone codebase is found in the following Python packages.

• plone.distribution provides the framework for defining distributions.

• plone.exportimport imports and exports content, users, and other objects between Plone sites. plone.distribution uses it.

• plone.volto is the distribution to create a Plone site with the Volto frontend.

• plone.classicui is the distribution to create a Plone site with the Classic UI frontend.

Note

For Plone 7, the Plone roadmap guides development toward a clearer separation between the Classic UI frontend and the core Products.CMFPlone backend. This means that in Plone 7, Products.CMFPlone will have less code and pull in fewer dependencies, whereas plone.classicui may have more code and pull in more dependencies. This is the direction in which the backend is heading, and the introduction of the plone.classicui distribution package is an important step along this path.

Comparison with other CMSs

Drupal

Drupal has distributions for blogs, e-commerce sites, and intranet portals.

WordPress

WordPress has a similar concept in the form of "WordPress Multisite," which allows users to run multiple websites from a single installation of WordPress.

Joomla

Joomla has a similar concept in the form of "Joomla Templates," which are pre-designed templates for Joomla websites.

TYPO3

TYPO3 has a similar concept in the form of "TYPO3 Distributions," which are pre-configured installations of TYPO3 for specific types of websites.