Because of its flexible nature, eZ publish can be used in various ways. This section attempts to summarize the overall possibilities of eZ publish by presenting a coarse overview of the system.

It is important to understand that eZ publish actually delivers three things:

• A set of ready-to-go web packages
• A powerful collection of built-in features
• A flexible development framework

The web packages build upon and make use of the built-in engines and features. The development framework is the basis for the engines and main features of eZ publish. The system is targeted at users ranging from rookie web developers to professional programmers. As already mentioned in the previous section, the system can be used to create anything from a personal homepage to an extremely complex corporate website. The following text explains the various development scenarios in more detail.

Standard web packages

eZ publish comes with a set of out-of-the box packages that can be used to deploy standard CMS solutions, such as:

• A corporate website
• An intranet solution
• A news site
• A discussion/forum site
• A personal homepage/blog
• An image gallery
• A webshop

These packages are turnkey solutions that require minimal setup and configuration, they're more or less ready-to-go. The functionality of these packages cover the typical needs of small and medium sized organizations and businesses. A web package can be used to set up a basic but powerful site within a couple of hours. Each package contains a collection of templates, content class definitions, custom content structure and so on. In other words, the packages are custom eZ publish web solutions that demonstrate some of the powerful features that the system provides. The packages can be easily extended and tailored to suit custom needs. However, no knowledge of programming is required as long as the packages are used in their original state. (The visual looks of a package can be easily tweaked by modifying CSS and HTML code.)

Built-in features

The eZ publish kernel consists of modules. Each module provides some sort of functionality. For example, the content module provides functionality related to content management, the user module provides functionality related to access control and so on. There are a lot of modules and a lot of features. Every single piece of the system is carefully designed to fit nicely together with the rest. Using the modules as building blocks, developers can create professional solutions within short time frames. In other words, a typical eZ publish site simply makes use of the features that are provided by the system. Appendix B contains a complete list and a short description of the currently available eZ publish modules. The ready-to-go web packages mentioned in the previous section are created using the built-in features of eZ publish. At the minimum, this kind of development requires HTML and CSS skills. In addition, the developer needs to learn the following things:

• how to configure the system
• how eZ publish manages and handles content
• how the template system works
• the template language

No PHP skills are required. A typical web developer who knows HTML and CSS can easily learn the things that are mentioned in the list above. The template language itself is a simplified programming language which is mainly used to extract and visualize content. It can also be used to initiate various actions within the system. Most people learn it within a couple of days.

Development framework

eZ publish delivers a wide range of ready-to-use features which can be used to build quite complex solutions. However, like other software solutions, eZ publish is not customized for every possible/particular need. This is why eZ publish is made up of components that are extendable and customizable. Because of its nature of openness, eZ publish can be easily plugged into, communicate and coexist with existing IT-solutions. All source code is available and modifyable. It is possible to change the behavior of the various modules, functions, features and so on. In addition, it is also possible to implement new/custom functionality. This kind of development requires PHP programming skills and should only be carried out by experienced developers.

eZ publish makes use of libraries. The libraries provide reuseable general purpose PHP classes that are used as the main building blocks of the system itself. The libraries are in no way dependent on the eZ publish environment. For example, a developer who needs an XML library in PHP could use the eZXML library that is provided with eZ publish. Appendix A contains a complete list and a short description of the currently available libraries.