commit 6efed6094aaab52eecf7e85d20d31da22ca5448d
Author: Kostas Papadimitriou <kpap@grnet.gr>
Date:   Thu Feb 23 19:58:05 2012 +0200

    Updated documentation

diff --git a/docs/source/index.rst b/docs/source/index.rst
index f5c64e6..1180adf 100644
--- a/docs/source/index.rst
+++ b/docs/source/index.rst
@@ -6,10 +6,122 @@
 Welcome to snf-cloudcms's documentation!
 ========================================
 
-Contents:
+Introduction
+============
 
-.. toctree::
-   :maxdepth: 2
+snf-cloudcms is a cms application based on `django`_ and `feincms`_.
+
+The project created to power websites that provide information about the
+`cloud services`_ deployed by `GRNET`_. 
+
+Currentrly the application provides the following features:
+
+* basic cms funcionality (adding/removing/editing hierarchical pages)
+* blog application
+
+in the near future the following additional features will get included 
+within the application:
+
+* Service resources management (presentations, technical papaer, white papers
+  etc.)
+* Service support (faq, userguide, service tickets etc.)
+
+.. _django: http://www.djangoproject.com
+.. _feincms: http://feinheit.ch/media/labs/feincms/
+.. _cloud services: http://docs.dev.grnet.gr/
+.. _GRNET: http://www.grnet.gr/
+
+
+Installation
+============
+
+Using debian packages
+---------------------
+
+Although not required it is recommended to use `snf-webproject`_ to deploy the
+cms application. If you want to deploy using your custom django project take
+a look on `cloudcms/synnefo_settings.py`_ file which includes ``snf-webproject`` 
+hooks to find which django settings are required for cms to work.
+
+.. _snf-webproject: http://docs.dev.grnet.gr/snf-webproject
+
+Install required packages::
+    
+    apt-get install snf-common snf-webproject
+    apt-get install python-django-feincms python-django-pagination python-django
+
+.. note::
+    
+    ``python-django-feincms`` and ``python-django-pagination`` are not provided
+    currently on debian stable but can be backported from sid.
+
+then, install ``snf-cloudcms`` package::
+
+    apt-get install snf-cloudcms
+
+Change settings in ``/etc/synnefo/20-snf-cloudcms-settings.conf`` to match your
+deployment needs.
+
+
+Deployment
+==========
+
+For information on how to configure and initialize database and serve 
+``snf-cloudcms`` static files please refer to `snf-webproject`_ documentation.
+
+.. note::
+
+    ``snf-cloudcms`` won't work with ``snf-webproject<0.8.1``
+
+
+``snf-cloudcms`` uses the django sites framework so that multiple cms sites
+can be deployed from the same django project and share common content. For each
+service site you want to deploy you should set the appropriate
+``CLOUDCMS_SITE_ID`` environmental variable to match the site id added in your
+cms databse.
+
+A quick way to initialize the sites you want to deploy is to create a simple
+fixtures file ``mysites.json`` containing the following::
+
+    [ 
+        {
+            "pk": 1, 
+            "model": "sites.site", 
+            "fields": {
+                "domain": "okeanos.cloud.grnet.gr", 
+                "name": "okeanos.cloud.grnet.gr"
+            }
+        }, 
+        {
+            "pk": 2, 
+            "model": "sites.site", 
+            "fields": {
+                "domain": "pithos.cloud.grnet.gr", 
+                "name": "pithos.cloud.grnet.gr"
+            }
+        }
+    ]
+
+and load the fixtures in your db using:: 
+    
+    snf-manage loaddata ./mysites.json
+
+After that you can deploy each of the sites you included in the above fixtures
+file using your prefered deployment method (fcgi, gunicorn etc.). 
+
+e.g. using django internal http server::
+    
+    export CLOUDCMS_SITE_ID=1
+    snf-manage runserver
+        
+If you skipped superuser creation as prompted on your database initialization
+step, you should create one now::
+
+    snf-manage createsuperuser
+
+Now you will be able to login using the superuser credentials you provided on
+the above command on ``http://<deployment-domain>/cmsmanage/`` url and start
+editing the content of your cms.
 
 Indices and tables
 ==================
