The purpose of this chapter is to introduce and describe the most important concepts of eZ Publish. A rookie developer should definitively read through this chapter in order to understand the basic terms, models, structures and building blocks of the system.

This chapter is more generic than technical, it is meant to teach the concepts rather than explaining details. People previously unfamiliar with eZ Publish should be able to collect enough information in order to understand the following issues:

• The way eZ Publish is built up
• The main directory structure
• The concept and necessity of separating content and design
• How eZ Publish stores and manages content
• How eZ Publish handles issues related to design
• How eZ Publish manages different sites
• The concept of modules and views
• The way eZ Publish works with URLs
• The configuration system
• The structure of the work-flow system
• How the access/permission system works
• How the web shop works
• A typical page request cycle