Required software

• Python 2.3.5+ but not Python 2.4
• Zope 2.7.6+ or Zope 2.8.1 (svn)
• Plone 2.1
• Archetypes 1.3.4
• Quickinstaller 1.5.2+
• ATReferenceBrowserWidget
• CMF 1.5

Installation

• Back up your data! Seriously! This thing may break your content, it is still experimental. But we need your feedback to make the migration perfect, so please install and convert your site on a backup instance, and report any failures/errors to us, so we can fix them.
• Update or install all required software like Archetypes, ATReferenceBrowserWidget and ATContentTypes
• Restart Zope
• Install ATContentTypes using the quickinstaller_tool. It should install all required products, too. It may take a while to install ATContentTypes because the installer has to recatalog all CMF based types first in order to make sure the migration doesn't break. Don't panik, reinstalls will be super fast because the installer is able to distinguish between install, uninstall and reinstall.
• Go to the ZMI (Zope management interface) and browse to the portal_atct tool. Click on the migration tab and run the migration in order to migrate the old CMF types to the new ATContentTypes types.

Comparing CMF types with ATContentTypes

This is a very roughe and short list of differences between the old CMF types and the new ATContentTypes types.

• Archetypes: All types are written with Archetypes and have all features default Archetypes based types have like:
  • autogenerated edit forms based on the schema
  • referenceable
  • Easily enhanceable by subclassing or adding fields to the schema
  • Transformations like restructured text, python source code highlighting, pdf to html, office to html and many more.
  • plugable validation of fields
• Clean and documented API.
• Translateable using LinguaPlone.
• TemplateMixin: All types are using the template feature of Archetypes that allows you to choose the view template per instance. Simply register your template, assign it to a type and choose it in the edit form of your object. This features is used to turn an ordinary folder into a photo ablum by simple switching to a different view.
• Permissions per type and feature: Every type has its own add permission and all features like template mixin have their own modify permission, too.
• Numerous small adjustments and enhancements to all types for example:
  • Images can be rotated through the web and have exif informations
  • News Items have an image plus caption
  • Events have a body text
  • Documents have a history tab to show the last changes as an unified diff view using the ZODB history.