Install Plone egg as a Python module on Windows

Question

I have a Plone site (Plone version 3.1.2) that I need to install a product called GrufSpaces on - (http://plone.org/products/grufspaces). However, it is a production site and so I can't easily take it down to upgrade Plone to 3.2+ in order to use buildout; using buildout would allow me to easily add Grufspaces (collective.groupspace.roles etc) as a Product.

I have downloaded the egg files separately (roles, workflow, mail, content) and placed them in a directory structure like so:

• collective/
  • __init__.py
  • groupspace/
    • __init__.py
    • content/...
    • roles/...
    • workflow/…
    • mail/...

What I thought I could do is add this "collective" folder to [plone directory]/Zope/lib/python as a Python module. The idea being once its added I can restart Plone/Zope and it will automatically pick it up and make it available within Plone as a Python Module. Unfortunately it has not worked as of yet.

If I am going about this the wrong way I welcome any suggestion to try this a different way.

Answer 1

Did you check GrufSpaces' INSTALL.TXT? From there:

Unpack it into your Zope Products Folder

For Plone, the easiest way is probably to unpack it the top level products folder.

See also http://plone.org/documentation/kb/third-party-products/installing, section "Installing Zope 2-style Products Without Buildout".

Answer 2

If you are trying to install GrufSpaces 2.0 then you should consider upgrading to Plone 3.3 (see the install requirements)

Placing the collective.* packages to [plone directory]/Zope/lib/python should work. But these packages are not compatible with Plone 3.1. Here is the example of ImportError that I get when using collective.groupspace.roles with Plone 3.1:

  File "/home/andrey/tmp/zope/instance/lib/python/collective/groupspace/roles/browser/roles.py", line 23, in ?
    from plone.app.workflow import PloneMessageFactory as _
zope.configuration.xmlconfig.ZopeXMLConfigurationError: File "/home/andrey/tmp/zope/instance/etc/site.zcml", line 15.2-15.23
    ZopeXMLConfigurationError: File "/home/andrey/tmp/zope/instance/Products/GrufSpaces/configure.zcml", line 17.4-17.53
    ZopeXMLConfigurationError: File "/home/andrey/tmp/zope/instance/lib/python/collective/groupspace/roles/configure.zcml", line 7.4-7.34
    ZopeXMLConfigurationError: File "/home/andrey/tmp/zope/instance/lib/python/collective/groupspace/roles/browser/configure.zcml", line 5.4-10.10
    ImportError: cannot import name PloneMessageFactory

Besides collective.* packages you have to download GrufSpaces product from SVN (download link at plone.org doesn't work for me) and place it in Products folder.

Answer 3

No advice specific to GruffSpaces as I've never used it but it sounds like you may be under the mistaken impression that you need Plone 3.2+ for buildout. This is incorrect. Buildout works just fine with Plone 3.1.2. I've also done buildouts for Plone 2.5.5 and even one for Plone 2.1 (although this last one was a bit tricky because the required python for that version doesn't do buildout).

So if you prefer the buildout route, just do it. Although upgrading your Plone is probably still good advice.