This course will focus on the tools and techniques that make Plone development practical, efficient, and even fun!

On the first day, you will learn how to set up a powerful and productive development environment, employing the tools the professionals use to debug, document and release manage their code. You will learn about:

• Managing the Python interpreter.
• Using Buildout effectively, thinking about deployment and application lifecycle management from day one.
• Managing source code and checkouts from various version control systems.
• Tracking development versions of core and third-party Plone add-on packages.
• Development tools that speed up the code-test turnaround time, put a debugger at your fingertips and give you access to the information you need.
• Using these tools to enable effective collaboration in development teams.
• Effective, low-impedance ways to document your work.

The second day will focus on caching, performance optimisation, deployment configuration and application lifecycle management. Here, you will learn about:

• Managing code releases with a combination of source control tagging and release management of your own packages.
• What you do when there is a critical defect in production.
• Managing HTTP and HTTPS traffic effectively with nginx.
• Caching and cache tuning with Varnish and plone.app.caching.
• Load testing.
• Advanced load balancing with HAProxy.
• RelStorage and ZEO.
• Design patterns for high availability and failover.
• Windows deployments with IIS, including Single Sign On.

You will also discover some of the Plone patterns and anti-patterns for building robust, scalable and secure Plone sites.

At the end of the course, you will have a set of example builds and packages that put the tools you need at your fingertips, and the knowledge to use them effectively.

PRE-REQUISITES

This course assumes you have some familiarity with Plone development and deployment, although deep Python skills will not be required. You'd probably do well to know what a Buildout is, however.

The examples will assume you are familiar with the command line using a standard shell such as Bash or ZSH.

We will discuss Windows where deployment to Windows differs significantly, although the material on the second day will be more focused on deployment on Linux or BSD-like operating systems.

To get the most out of the course, you should bring a laptop capable of running Plone 4. It will be best if you do have managed to get a Plone 4 build running on it (e.g. using an installer).

ABOUT THE TRAINER

Martin Aspeli is a long-time Plone core contributor, responsible for some of the most advanced and most frequently used features in Plone. He wrote the acclaimed book Professional Plone Development, for which a significant update covering Plone 4.1 will be available later this year. Working as a consultant and technical lead, Martin has experience building and deployment complex, high-performance Plone websites, working in both large and small teams.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

The course will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Numbers are strictly limited, so sign up early to avoid disappointment! Note that payment is required at the time of signup.

The course will cost US$395 per person for the full two days, with a limited number of early-bird places available for US$350 until the end of August.

LOCATION AND TIMING

The course will take place near the Plone Conference venue in San Franscio, California, USA, on November 1st and 2nd, which are the two days immediately prior to the Plone Conference itself.

Note that registration for the Plone Conference is separate, but highly recommended!

See the Plone Conference 2011 website for more details.