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Glossary Definitions

Glossary of terms.

Anyone who is not logged into your site is considered an anonymous user. Plone doesn't know anything about this kind of user, and therefore, they cannot edit or add any kind of content. All content in Private state is not accessible to an anonymous user.

Blog (short for weB LOG) #

A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently. It is common for blogs to be available as RSS feeds.

Breadcrumb Navigation #

"Breadcrumbs" are a navigation tool that lets you see the structure of the site relative to where you are. In Plone, you can see this below the banner and above the main content area that says: "You are here: home --> plone documentation --> glossary definitions" Breadcrumbs allow you to click on a link and quickly jump to another place in the site based on its hierarchy. For example, you can jump up a level (to the folder containing the document displayed now) or to the home page ("root") of the site.

Colophon #

In a Web site, a colophon is a description of the tools, systems and resources used to create the Web site and keep it operational. The colophon serves to acknowledge and give credit to all the resources that combined to produce the specific site. In Plone, the colophon usually appears at the bottom of the page, under the footer (which usually contains contact information), and typically has the "Plone Powered" button, the accessibility, web standards, or other buttons.

Compression #

Compression is useful because it helps reduce the consumption of resources, such as disk space or transmission bandwidth. The design of data compression tools involve trade-offs between various factors, including the degree of compression, the amount of distortion introduced, and the computational resources required to compress and uncompress the data.

Contact Form #

A Contact Form is a way to let people send an email through a web site (instead of an email client). Contact Forms general have a set of fields that the user fills in (Name, Email, Phone, Subject, Message) and then the user submits that. Contact forms are handy in that they don't expose your email address online, protecting your from spammers that harvest emails from web pages. The web site routes that information to designated email addresses.

Content Editor #

The content editor is the tool you use in Plone to edit the body text of a page, news item, event or other type of content.

Content Management System (CMS) #

A content management system is frequently a web application used for managing websites and web content. The advantage to using a CMS is that they allow for people to work on a website together from any geographic location. Plone is an open source CMS, which means that it can be modified to any extent by the end user.

Content Type #

A content type is a term you'll hear used in Plone when referring to things like a page, document, file, image, news item, folder, event, etc . . . Essentially anything you can add using the "add item" tab is going to be a content type. Your web site may also contain certain custom content types that you do not see in the above list.

Contents Tab #

A tab that appears above the content area when you are logged in, usually to the left of View. Useful for looking at a listing of the contents of a folder. This is also where you can rearrange the order of content items, delete, cut, copy, paste, and rename.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) #

A standard for specifying the appearance of text and other elements. CSS is typically used to provide a single "library" of styles that are used over and over throughout a large number of pages in a web site. A CSS file might specify that all numbered lists are to appear in italics. By changing that single specification the look of a large number of documents can be changed.

Domain Name #

The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Example: plone.org is the domain name of the Plone website.

Download #

The act of transferring a document, webpage, audio file, video or any other type of data from a remote computer to your local computer.

Edit Tab #

A tab that appears above the content area when a user is logged in, usually to the right of View. This tab is used to do almost all of editing of any content item (webpage, image, file, etc . . .)

Event #

A content type used to describe a meeting, convention, workshop or other scheduled event. Plone displays events in a portlet, in a smart folder, or by a direct link.

Expiration Date #

You can set the expiration date via the Properties Tab on almost any content type. When the expiration date arrived the item is no longer publicly accessible but can still be accessed if you are logged in. This feature is particularly useful with news items to keep old news from piling up on your website.

External Link #

An external link is a link that takes you away from your Plone site to a different website.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) #

A section of your site that will assist your visitors with the common questions they may have about your site. Often displayed as a series of questions and answers listed numerically or by topic.

Fields #

A field is a part of a form on a webpage. Many fields are little boxes where you can input some text. For example, when you are editing a page there is a Title, Description and Body Text field.

File #

A file is any content such as a Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF etc . . . Linking to a file in Plone allows users to download the file.

Filesize #

The term filesize refers to how big a particular file is in terms of bytes.

Filesizes are expressed in terms of bytes, which are a unit of measure in the world of computers. A single byte is rather small, but most files are much larger. We express 1000 bytes as a kilobyte, and a million bytes as a megabyte

You can make an analogy with filesize to the weight of a physical object. Something that weighs 15 pounds obviously isn't as hard to lift as something that weights 15 tons. The same is true of filesizes, especially in an online context.

A file that is 15 kilobytes takes much less computing power, and load on your internet connection, than a 15 megabyte file would.

Folder #

Folders organize content into sections, much like folders do on your hard drive. Folders are also used to create the navigation buttons and tabs for your website. Folder HOLD content, but do not posses content themselves.

Footer #

The bottom section of a webpage, under the content area. Frequently housing contact information or technical details and/or credits for the website.

GIF #

GIF is another standard for compressing images for ease of file transfer. The GIF format is best used on images with only a few distinct colors, such as line drawings and simple cartoons. You'll recognize a GIF file by the .gif file extension. Usually pronounced "giff"

Gigabytes, Megabytes, and Kilobytes (GB, MB, KB) #

These terms refer to the size of a given file.

A byte is a single unit of computer data. Since computers deal in large volumes of data we use a decimalized system of naming file sizes. A giga-byte (also called a gig) is 1 billion bytes, a mega-byte (also called a meg) is 1 million bytes, and a kilo-byte (sometimes simply called k) is 1000 bytes.

It is a good practice when writing for the web to state the type and size of a file if it is available for download. For example a document that is 138,000 bytes should be labelled as 138Kb and a file that is 1,451,216 bytes should be labelled 1.45 Mb.

Header #

The header is the top of a Plone page where you'll typically find your logo, search tool, and top navigation bar. Also there are usually links to the site map and contact form.

HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) #

A computer language used for creating websites. In html normal text is used with the addition of what are called tags to describe different attributes of that text. For example, to make text bold, underlined, centered, with a specific font, etc . . .

Hyperlink #

A hyperlink is a piece of text, or sometimes an image that when clicked on will take you to a different webpage or part of a webpage. Often called simply a 'link' for short.

Image #

An image is a special type of content such as a .gif or .jpeg. They can be pictures, photos, graphs, maps, charts, or anything graphical.

Internal Link #

An internal link is a link that takes you from one part of your Plone site to another part of your Plone site. Can be used for webpages, images, documents, videos, etc . . .

JPEG #

JPEG (or jpg) is an image format, just like GIF or TIFF. JPEG's compress images for easy file transfer. This format works well on photographs, naturalistic artwork, and images with many colors; not so well on lettering, simple cartoons, or line drawings. You'll know a JPEG file by the extension .jpg at the end of the file. Usually pronounced "jay-peg".

Kupu #

Kupu is the default page editor that comes with the Plone content management system. When editing a page in Plone, the body text section is edited by using Kupu. The editor allows for non-technical users to create webpages by using a set of icons in place of writing out HTML tags. Kupu still allows you to view and edit the HTML source, if needed. Kupu is Maori and means word, statement, remark. Kupu kupu is Indonesian and means butterfly. Hence, the blue butterfly is Kupu's mascot.

Landing Page #

When a user clicks on a link to a webpage, the 'landing page' is the first page that displays. Often the landing page includes a summary of what is in a particular section of the website. You can think of landing pages as the 'home page' for a section of the website. To select a landing page, use the Display tab and select the 'Select a content item as default view" option.

Live Search #

Live search is a method of searching that finds matches as soon as you begin typing. For example if you were to look for the word 'glossary' you would begin by typing g, l, o which would immediately start finding results such as glove or gloat as well as the word glossary. The more letters typed would narrow the search results until just the results bearing the word 'glossary' appear. The advatage of live search is that search results appear immediately, and you are able to alter your search terms quickly as you see results pop up. It saves you from having to enter search terms, wait to view results, then go back and alter the terms.

Member #

A Member in the context of Plone refers to a user that has a login to the website, but does not have all the abilities of a Manager, Owner, or Reviewer. Usually the member role is for users that are supposed to have access to only a part of the site such as a Board or Trustees section.

The term member may be the source of confusion since many organizations have, "members" which is to say, supporters. Just keep in mind that the role of member in Plone, is not necessarily the same as one who has a membership to your organization.

Member Folder #

The member's personal sandbox folder useful for adding practice pages, draft content to be moved upon completion, or for community sites, where member submit pages for review by site administrators. By default, any user with an account in a Plone-powered website will have an automatically created member folder.

News Item #

This is a document can be shown under the news tab (for example, a press release), or in a News portlet. Use these when in the News folder to add a new News item. In many ways a news item is very similar to a webpage, but the ways in which it is displayed are a bit different.

Open Source #

Open source refers to software that is non-proprietary, with limited copyrights in place. Users are able to access the computer code that drives the software and makes changes or additions to the initial 'out-of-the-box' product. Plone is open source which means that this practice allows for programmers all over the world to create new tools called products that users can pick and choose from.

Page #

A page in Plone is a webpage, one of the most common content types.

Password #

A password is a a secret code, almost always associated with a username, to gain access to a restricted website or computer. A best practice when choosing a password is to use a combination of lowercase, uppercase, numbers and symbols. Example: frANkL1n$ makes a good password.

PDF (Portable Document Format) #

A cross platform (regardless of operating system) file type that allows you to distribute documents and ensure they display and print properly. The PDF has become the preferred format for documents that contain images and highly formatted text, such as manuals, brochures, and maps.

Personal Bar #

The personal bar in Plone is the area usually above the content area where you can set your user preferences, undo, and log out. Through the preferences button you can edit your profile information and change your password.

Plone #

Plone is an open source content managment system (CMS). It is widely used due to its customization, extensibility, usability, multilingual support, and strong community of developers. Plone can be used on almost any operating system and is useful for collaborative projects of any size.

Portlet #

A portlet is a box or region on either the left or right side of a typical plone website. On this site there is a Navigation portlet on the left and the "Still Stumped?" portlet on the right. Portlets can contain static (unchanging) or contextural information depending on what the portlet is programmed to do. Other common portlets are News, Events, or a Calendar.

Private State #

The most restrictive state that content can be in. Private content can only be viewed by a logged in user. It cannot be found by a search of be accessed even with a direct link. The private state is great for creating an intranet, board member section, or other restricted collaboration space.

Properties Tab #

All content types have a Properties Tab in addition to View, Edit and Sharing. In the Properties Tab you can set keywords, an effective and expiration date, copyrights and contributor information, and Exclude from Navigation.

Public Draft (Visible State) #

Whenever new content of any type is created, it will automatically be in the Public Draft state. Items in Public Draft can be found through a search, or by a direct link. They will not show up as part of your site navigation, however.

Published (Public State) #

When content is Published it can be found through a search, a direct link or become part of your site navigation. It is the most visible state that content can be in. Content such as news and events often must be published to show up properly in a portlet or smart folder.

Publishing State #

Publishing states control how content can be found, who is allowed to view it, and in some cases they control workflow. The four publishing states in order of most accessible to most restricted are: Published, Public Draft (or Visible), Pending, and Private.

Review or Pending State #

Content that has been submitted using the Change State function will go into a holding bin before reaching a Published state. It is then up to someone with a Reviewer role to accept or decline the content.

Reviewer Role #

A reviewer has more permissions than a member but less than a manager. Reviewers can edit, review, and/or publish designated content created by a member; they cannot change the member’s personal or group folder configuration or alter a member’s user account. Those functions are available to someone with a Manager role.

Role #

A "Role" in Plone is a collection of specific permissions. There are default roles in Plone (ie Member, Reviewer, Manager), each with a different set of specific permissions, such as the ability to delete content, add users, or publish pages.

Root (of the site) #

The root of a site refers to the top-most level of the site. That usually means the homepage, and any other content items not inside of a folder.

RSS #

A commonly used tool for syndication and sharing of content widely used to share the contents of blogs, news, and websites. They provide web content or summaries of web content together with links to the full versions of the content. RSS allows a frequent website reader to track updates on the site.

Search Engine #

A computer program that allows you to search the internet, a webpage, or even within a document for search terms commenly called keywords. A search engine is almost always a text box next to a button labelled 'search' or sometimes 'go'.

Site Map #

A site map is a directory layout of your site. A well constructed site map allows you to find information in the same way you would use the index of a book. Site maps enhance the accessibility of a webpage.

Site Root #

The management of information in a site is described by a hierarchy. The "root" of the site is the place all the most fundamental level of information organization of files in your site. You can find your site root at http://www.yourdomain.com/ .

Smart Folder #

Smart folders are a way of grouping or sorting content. They are essentially a saved search based on criteria that you can reuse later. Do not confuse Smart Folders with normal Folders. You cannot add items to a Smart Folder, you use them to display defined search results.

Table #

A table is used to organize data into columns and rows, such as a spreadsheet. This grid format of information can be very useful for showing information on a page for items such as a schedule or matrix. Plone includes the ability to insert a table into a page using the visual editor. Tables take some getting used to, so visit the tables tutorial for more information.

Table Cell #

A "cell" is the smallest unit of organization of information in a table. A cell is defined by a location at the intersection of a given row and column. The cell contains a unit of data for your table.

Table Column #

In a table of data, such as a spreadsheet, a column is a set of vertical cells.

Table Row #

A row in a table of data is the horizonal group of cells.

Tabs #

Tabs are a navigational device designed to mimic the folder labels in a file cabinet. You can see them in action below our logo at the top left of the screen; they include "home", "about learnplone", and "plone documentation". They also appear on a page you are editing when you are logged in (they might include "contents", "view", and "edit").

Text Editor #

A simple application that provides minimal support for text formatting. Like NotePad for Windows, and TextEditor for Macintosh.

UIDs #

UID is short for Unique Identifier. Links created by Kupu can use unique ids so that the links remain valid even if the target object is renamed or moved elsewhere on the site. Versions of Kupu 1.4 and higher have this feature, and it is recommended that it be used.

Read the How-To for turning this function on

URL #

URL (short for Uniform Resource Locator) is a fancy acronym for a website address usually taking the form of "http://" + some domain like "www.learnplone.org"

Web Browser #

A web browser is an application used to view web pages. They translate web languages into the graphical, multimedia webpages that populate the internet. The most common web browsers are: Internet Explorer (the most widely used web browser. IE for short), Safari (the main web browser for Macintosh users), Mozilla's Firefox (a free web browser full of customizations and add-on features). Other web browers you may encounter are: Netscape, Opera, and AOL.

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