Bootstrap a Plone backend with mxmake

mxmake simplifies the setup of a Plone backend.

Preconditions

You need Python 3.9+, make and pipx installed.

Generate the Makefile

Create a new directory for your project and inside run:

pipx run mxmake init

Use arrow keys and space to select topics core and applications. If you plan to develop and addon, select qa as well. Press Enter to confirm.

In the next step, if qa was selcted, select domains you like to use. If in doubt, select black, isort, test and zpretty. Press Enter to confirm.

From topic core select all domains. Press Enter to confirm.

From topic applications select cookiecutter and zope. If you plan to develop a addon and release it to pypi, select zest.releaser as well. Press Enter to confirm.

Now confirm all questions with their default selection by pressing enter several times.

Now you have a Makefile in your project directory. Additional an mx.ini was created.

Create the basic Plone setup files:

echo "-c https://dist.plone.org/release/6.0.1/constraints.txt" > constraints.txt
echo "-c constraints.txt
Plone
" > requirements.txt
echo "
default_context:
    initial_user_password: admin
    debug_mode: true
"> instance.yaml"

Modifications to the Makefile

The Makefile contains a header with some variables. Only change the variables in the header and do not touch the Makefile below the header.

In the case you need custom targets or variables, use a include.mk file. For now, we don’t.

Open the file in an editor and change variables:

Since plone 6.0.10 needs Python 3.9 at least, set the PYTHON_VERSION to 3.9:

PYTHON_MIN_VERSION?=3.9

If you plan to develop an addon, you need to allow pre-releases. Edit the Makefile and change the PACKAGES_ALLOW_PRERELEASES to true:

PACKAGES_ALLOW_PRERELEASES?=true

It is highly satisfying to have a fast installation process. pip is slow, but now there is the fast drop-in replacement [uv]. To use it (optional), set PYTHON_PACKAGE_INSTALLER to uv:

PYTHON_PACKAGE_INSTALLER?=uv

For now that is enough.

Install and start zope.

Now run:

make zope-start

Go to http://localhost:8080 and login with admin and the password admin. Create a Plone Site. Enjoy.