People willing to add new features to their websites have too much of a choice. Choosing and testing addons is a task that requires either developer-superpowers and a unlimited budget or blind faith and dumb luck. In this talk we'll find out how to walk the middle ground and live to tell the tale. See a video of the talk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc6NkqaSjqw

1. PIMP MY PLONE
Philip Bauer
www.starzel.de

3. There are over 1000 repos in the plone-collective on github
The products-section on plone.org holds 2170 add-ons
The search for Plone on pypi yields 2800 packages
The addons vary in quality, maturity, age and reliability.

4. The products-section on plone.org holds 2170 add-ons
The search for Plone on pypi yields 2800 packages
The addons vary in quality, maturity, age and reliability.
Nobody can say they know all plone-addons.

5. Finding, choosing and testing addons is a task that requires either developer-superpowers
and a unlimited budget or blind faith and dumb luck.
So what should you do to not end up lokking like the sad little elephant looking for the right
flower?
You need a plan.

6. Make a list of features
Find out what you think you really need.
Surprisingly often you do not know what you need.
On the one hand that makes it hard to even know what to look for in an addon.
On the other hand that's a good thing because you'll almost never find an add-on that
exactly fits your needs.

7. Adapt
So you'll have to either
* adapt your needs and expectations to what is available,
* invest the time & money to modify an existing addons to fit your needs
* or create a new addon that does exactly what you need
Usually we have all three cases in any project.

8. Prioritize
To be able to make a informed decision you make a list of features and prioritize.
Example:
* Must-have: Play videos on iOS, FF and IE8+
* Nice-to have: Support html5-video
This way you're able to make a informed decision one you found some candidates.

9. Finding the right one
But how do you find candidates?
There is no good list of addons.
There are either...

10. Too few
to few like in plone/products

11. Too many
or too many..

12. 1. http://plone.org/products
2. https://pypi.python.org/pypi
3. https://github.com/collective
4. https://github.com/plone
5. http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.zope.plone.user
6. google
Search before you ask!
1. http://plone.org/products
2. https://pypi.python.org/pypi - use the search form!
3. https://github.com/collective >1000 repositories!
4. https://github.com/plone 240 repos - not all of them are part of the core yet!
5. search mailing list-archive: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.zope.plone.user
6. google
Do all six!
In fact it only appears that we have to much choice. There are a lot of addons that do not
exist yet.
You'll have to write it yourself or pay someone to do this.
We rarely have projects were we don't have to write our own addons. There is no harm in this!
Usually these addons don't get released on pypi or even on github since they only fit the
usecase of that customer.
Sometimes addons can be of use to the wider public. Example: collective.noticeboard (sticky
notes for plone)

13. Ask
If you did not find an addon that fits your needs ask.
Actually you might have missed the very best addon for your usecase since the name is
somewhat weird (anyone uwosh.north*), it has not been put on plone.org/products or
because it is very new.
1. irc: #plone on irc.freenode.net
2. mailing-list: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.zope.plone.user or http://
plone.org/support/forums (http://plone.org/support/lists)
screenshot: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.zope.plone.user/116572/
focus=116643
3. I think stackoverflow is not the right platform for such a question but you might try it

14. Shortlist
We can satisfy the 85% by providing a up-to-date list of the best addons for frequent use-
cases.
- Product shortlist https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?
key=0At7ok0VqX0egdExISThOa0JBYjVUYi1pWmRDU0QyeUE#gid=0
Paul already talked about that

15. So test therefore, who join forever,
If heart to heart be found together!
F. Schiller
Once you think you found a likely candidate:
Look closely

16. Promises
Test the key features thoroughly. Some addons promise more than they can deliver.

17. Freshness
Check how fresh and how well maintained the product is.
• When was the latest release?
• Are there hundreds of unresolved Bugs in the bug-tracker?
• Has is recently seen developments?

18. Compatability
Does it run with your Plone-Version?
• Many addons are not yet updated to work with Plone 4.3.x ()
• Many releases of addons won't work with Plone 3.3.x or even Plone 4.0
Maybe you need to use a older version of an addon to run it.

19. i18n-support
Are all strings properly translated into your language(s).
You have to click through all public-facing UI in all your required languages.

20. Will it uninstall?
Does it uninstall cleanly?
* Are there instructions for uninstalling?
* Do they work?
You really need to test that.
First uninstall it or follow the instructions (maybe the tell you to run a uninstall-profile). Then
remove it from buildout, rerun buidlout and restart the site. If nothing breaks you might just
be lucky.
Among the bad boys are:
* p4a.*
* singing & dancing
* LinguaPlone

21. http://blog.keul.it/2013/05/how-to-make-your-
plone-add-on-products.html
You'll spend days and sleepless nights trying to get rid of them. You'll work through a lot ob
blogpost and mailthreads but might still end up without being able to get rid of the Add-on.
It happend to me more often than I care to admit!
If an add-on won't uninstall properly you have a choice:
* use it anyway and live with the consequences
* improve the uninstall-story
* use something else
Read the great blogpost by Luca Fabbri: http://blog.keul.it/2013/05/how-to-make-your-
plone-add-on-products.html

22. Dependencies
Imaging you marry the girl of your dreams but one day you realize the brother she never
talked about has just been released from jail and now want's to move in. This is how it feels
to realize that the dependencies of a product have unexpected bad boys among them.
- Check for other packages (e.g. flowplayer depends on several hachoir-packages, not bad
but good to know)
- Check for the required versions of these packages (e.g. plone.app.themeeditor uses
Zopeskel 3.x/templer -> incompatible to any addon that depends on ZopeSkel 2)

23. Load
* Just how many js-libraries will be pulled into your page-load?
* Why does the site run very slow?
* I once wrote code that iterated over all users and created some special vocabulary from
them. I did not expect that code being used in a site with thousands of users hammering a
erratic LDAP with queries.

24. What to do if it's not working like it should?
Sometimes you'll have to fix an existing addon or add some functionality. Write a bug-report
or feature-request.
The bug-trackers are usually on github and are usually mentioned in the pypi-page.
Example: https://github.com/smcmahon/Products.PloneFormGen/issues
If you are a developer you might want to fix it yourselves. I do it all the time.
If your bug-report gets ignored and you need to find someone to fix something check the list
of people who recently commited to the package. To do so you go to the github-page of the
addon.
Example: https://github.com/collective/collective.oembed/commits/master
You should only contact people directly if you are prepared to eventually pay them for the
work they are supposed to be doing on your behalf.

25. Keeps your troops organized
Once you found them tend to them and keep them in a nice row.
This includes:
* Pinn your versions
* Don't use source-checkouts in production
* Pinn revisions if you have to use source-checkouts
* Keep track of updates and development
* Check your add-ons early if you plan a update
* Prevent bitrot by following the development and participating
Then the addons will be great troopers and you or your customers will be happy.

26. ?
?
?
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Questions
Philip Bauer
www.starzel.de
irc: pbauer
github: pbauer
twitter: StarzelDe
We have room for up to four questions

27. Napkin plan
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/6293680050
Lost for choice
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kool_skatkat/3194000700
troop inspection
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pasukaru76/4016842259/
crossed fingers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel_gies/5052886953
maintenance
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doug88888/2780642603
wrong plug
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/3203311346
menu
http://www.flickr.com/photos/orangebrompton/9189799267
zombie
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianaberle/4577125935
how to kill a zombie
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12905355@N05/5818578916
truck
http://www.flickr.com/photos/webethere/8709657798
stromtroopers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/legofenris/4212007962
Images