December 1999 - Zope-Announce

FYI: Zope Weekly News
by Mike Pelletier 23 May '00

23 May '00

G'day, Zope Weekly News is a digest of some of the useful and interesting events which have occurred on the various Zope mailing lists and the Zope.org site. It is published each Wednesday evening. New Products and Announcements * Paul Everitt announces Sybase support in a joint press release. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013946.html http://www.digicool.com/News/Sybase * "Zen" released ZRadius, a product which allows you to authenticate web users via the Radius authentication protocol. http://www.zope.org/Members/Zen/ZRadius * Anthony Pfrunder announces VisualZope 0.1a. From his web page: Basically, the "goal" of VZ is to provide a SIMPLE visual editing system for graphic designers which works cross-browser and takes advantage of the acquisition and role systems within Zope. What follows is a brief description of the components which make up the final VZ system (probably more accurate than previous posts). http://163.182.196.200/zwiki/VisualZope * Jeff Sheldon has started a weblog of his experiences with Zope. Jeff Sheldon is new to Zope, and is not a professional programmer. His weblog is a valuable resource to those also starting out with Zope. http://weblogs.userland.com/zopeNewbies/stories/storyReader$0 Updates * Zope 2.1.0 beta 2 has been released. This release includes fixes for issues found in beta 1, an updated load_site.py script and Martijn Pieters' patches to implement try/except/else and try/finally in DTML. Unless something major comes up, this will be the final beta before 2.1.0 final. http://www.zope.org/Products/Zope/2.1.0b2/ * "4am" has submitted an update to his PythonMethod product. It allows methods, written in Python, to be created via the Zope web management interface. http://www.zope.org/Members/4am/PythonMethod * "Drew" contributed an update to his Photo product. It generates thumbnail views of images at the user's preferred size. Requires PIL. http://www.zope.org/Members/Drew/Photo * Itamar Shtull-Trauring announced ZCache v0.2. ZCache is a Python Product which allows you to cache expensive methods, taking strain off your server. It also generates 'Last-Modified' headers, aiding browser and proxy caches. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/014115.html http://www.zope.org/Members/itamar/ZCache Zope.org items * "Zen" submitted a tip he picked up from Michel Pelletier. He explains how volatile attributes work, and how to populate them when your object is loaded from the database. Volatile attributes are attributes which do not get written to the database, and are good for data which changes frequently. http://www.zope.org/Members/Zen/tips/VolatileAttributes * "AlexR" submitted a How-To detailing the use of the DTML entity syntax. "DTML entities" are chunks of DTML which look like this: "&dtml-title_or_id;" http://www.zope.org/Members/AlexR/EntitySyntax Notable Discussions * DTML is a HUGE topic this week. Discussions spill across several lists. A very good job is done of identifying DTML's weak points. Many hold that the difficulty in using DTML comes from it's roots as a reporting language-- it isn't supposed to be used for logic. The problem is, there isn't yet an easy replacement for DTML as a programming language. Python Methods are cited as an excellent start on providing a means of moving logic out of DTML. Christopher Petrilli mentions that DC is looking at grooming Python Methods for inclusion in Zope. Others feel that reporting vs. programming is a forced distinction, and that it is awkward to have to use two different solutions. The claim that generating HTML is actually a rather complex task, and the powerful but ugly features of DTML are a necessary evil. DTML is compared to Perl! <gasp!> Otherwise, lots of very useful tips for using DTML are revealed. An excellent read for DTML beginners and wizards alike. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013710.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope-dev/1999-November/002088.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope-dev/1999-November/002102.html * Darcy Clark alerts the list of Jon Udell's latest article mentioning Zope. Jon's article discusses the ease of using Zope with Windows databases, the pain of using it with Unix databases, cheers ODBC, and jeers lack of a similar magic bullet for Unix. The thread then continues to discuss the relative merits of various free databases and using them with Zope. http://www.byte.com/column/BYT19991104S0001 http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013711.html Also, Karl Fast does an excellent job of summarising the thread, generating more sage comments. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013762.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013812.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013813.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013840.html * Francois-Regis CHALAOUX posed a question about using Zope with virtual hosting. Several useful responses were generated. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013678.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013688.html * Ben Galbraith submitted a comparison of Zope and Cold Fusion and solicited comments. Some of the usual suspects offer theirs. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013730.html * Otto Hammersmith started a thread about Zope and security. In it, he speaks of some of the security pitfalls that unsuspecting Zope users could experience. Brian Lloyd submits some solutions. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013779.html * Paul Everitt wrote in to remind us that there is a zope-dev(a)zope.org list for technical discussions. A brisk discussion developed to debate what constituted a technical discussion. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013796.html * Theodore Patrick launched a lengthy thread with questions about the effect of threading in Zope. A number of folks from Digital Creations provide answers. The discussion moves on with high volume and content to the topics of benchmarking and performance tuning Zope. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/013808.html * Farzad Farid revives the uncacheable image thread. Because Acquisition can lead to different URLs being generated for images when viewed from different locations, it makes caching difficult and can generate excessive traffic. Others offer advice to solve this problem. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-November/014021.html * David Harrison asks zope-dev how to return an image generated on-the-fly by an External Method. Answers found. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope-dev/1999-November/002107.html Mike Pelletier

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Zope Weekly News
by Mike Pelletier 29 Dec '99

29 Dec '99

G'day, Zope Weekly News is a digest of some of the useful and interesting events which have occurred on the various Zope mailing lists and the Zope.org site. It is published each Wednesday evening. Any opinions contained in the Zope Weekly News are those of the chronicler exclusively. Announcements * Amos Lattier <amos(a)digicool.com> put out a call for FastCGI problems. Amos is revisiting FastCGI support, so the more you complain the better it will be. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/016202.html * Paul Everitt <paul(a)digicool.com> has alerted everyone to the latest issue of Linux Magazine, which contains an article "Gold Rush: Venture Capitalists Discover Linux". The article talks about Digital Creations and Hadar Pedhazur at length. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/016197.html Updates * "htrd" posted an update to his NTUserFolder product. It authenticates Zope users from NT user accounts. It only runs on Windows NT. The latest release is 1.3. http://yyy.zope.org/Members/htrd/NTUserFolder * "phd" has updated mod_pcgi2 several times this week. mod_pcgi2 moves PGCI's calling code into Apache's process to eliminate the so-called "fork tax". This makes requests more responsive. The latest version is 0.1.2. http://yyy.zope.org/Members/phd/mod_pcgi2 Zope.org items * "z113" contributed a How-To on adding your own DTML tags to the language. http://yyy.zope.org/Members/z113/1 Notable Discussions * Art Hampton <arth(a)pacsg.css.mot.com> started a discussion presently underway about the relative merits of mod_pcgi2, vanilla PCGI and FastCGI. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/016198.html * Anthony Baxter <anthony(a)interlink.com.au> has made and released some modifications to ZCatalog. He's soliciting comments in zope-dev. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope-dev/1999-December/002780.htm; -- Mike Pelletier.

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Zope Weekly News
by Mike Pelletier 22 Dec '99

22 Dec '99

G'day, Zope Weekly News is a digest of some of the useful and interesting events which have occurred on the various Zope mailing lists and the Zope.org site. It is published each Wednesday evening. Any opinions contained in the Zope Weekly News are those of the chronicler exclusively. Announcements * Amos Lattier has started a series at XML.com about XML and Zope. The first article is available. http://www.xml.com/pub/1999/12/zope/index.html * Beehive has translated additional Zope How-Tos into German. German speaking Zope users are welcome to contribute to the effort. http://www.zope.de/bibliothek/How-Tos/ http://www.zope.de * The new Zope Front Door has been installed. Comments to webmaster(a)zope.org are encouraged. http://www.zope.org * Lutz Ehrlich <Lutz.Ehrlich(a)EMBL-Heidelberg.de> has launched the German Python/Zope network. "It is meant to be a lightweight and efficient means to form a network of freelancers able to provide Python/Zope services in the German speaking part of the world." http://www.python-netzwerk.de * A mailing list has been set up to support the Zope Mozilla Initiative. It's address is zope-mozilla(a)zope.org. http://www.zope.org/Resources/Mozilla New Products * "4am" posted a bash script to automate generating distribution archives of Python Products. http://www.zope.org/Members/4am/packProduct Updates * The Z SQL Methods User's Guide has been updated. http://www.zope.org/Documentation/Guides/ZSQL * "4am" has updated SiteAccess to work with Zope 2.1. http://www.zope.org/Members/4am/SiteAccess Zope.org items * "limi" posted the 100th How-To, which is about using multiple-selection and selection properties. http://www.zope.org/Members/limi/multipleselection-howto * "dparker" submitted a tip for editing Zope resources with the editor of your choice under KDE, and suggests that the same technique may work for other environments. http://www.zope.org/Members/dparker/alternativeeditors * "sfs" has contributed a helpful document on forcing clients to use HTTPS when using the management interface. http://www.zope.org/Members/sfs/Apache/SSL/forcehttpsformanage Notable Discussions * chas <panda(a)skinnyhippo.com> started a discussion titled "Linux/Redhat advice : RPMs vs Src for Zope development ?" "chas" is new to Linux, coming from a FreeBSD background, and he in curious about the relative merits of installing from the sources versus installing with an RPM. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/016006.html * Christopher Petrilli <petrilli(a)digicool.com> posted to zope-dev to let everyone know that Even Simpson's Python Methods have been rolled in to Zope, and are now committed to the CVS. Some discussion of Python Methods followed. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope-dev/1999-December/002735.html * Dave Parker <dparker(a)globalcrossing.com> complained that his namespace kept disappearing when he called a DTML Method from a DTML Method. Jim Fulton and others wrote in explaining what was happening, why it happened, and how to pass values to a DTML Method without losing your namespace. A lot of very useful information, sure to cause many a forehead-slap. Jim also mentions that you may not have to jump through this particular hoop too much longer. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope-dev/1999-December/002715.html * Andrew Hall <aah(a)impaq.net.au> has his FastCGI/Zope setup troubleshot by the mailing list. An error in the documentation (doc/WEBSERVER.txt) is pointed out! (Corrected in the CVS.) http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015882.html -- Mike Pelletier.

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German Python/Zope network
by Lutz Ehrlich 20 Dec '99

20 Dec '99

Hi all, this is to let you know that the German Python/Zope network has taken off. It is meant to be a lightweight and efficient means to form a network of freelancers able to provide Python/Zope services in the German speaking part of the world. Find more information at http://www.python-netzwerk.de Viel Spass, Lutz -- ______________________________________________________________________ Lutz Ehrlich http://www.embl-heidelberg.de/~ehrlich mailto:lutz.ehrlich@embl-heidelberg.de European Molecular Biology Laboratory phone: +49-6221-387-140 Meyerhofstr. 1 fax : +49-6221-387-517 D-69012 Heidelberg, Germany

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Zope-Mozilla mailinglist created
by Martijn Pieters 18 Dec '99

18 Dec '99

Hello Zopatistas, To accompany the Zope Mozilla Initiative, we have created a mailinglist on the subject. At zope-mozilla(a)zope.org, you can follow and join the discussion on the new additions to the Zope "Internet architecture". To subscribe, follow the instructions on the mailinglist webpage: http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-mozilla More information about the initiative: http://www.zope.org/Resources/Mozilla If you can think of a Use Case for RDF in Zope, post these to the new list. My request for use cases: http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope-mozilla/1999-December/000001.html -- Best regards, Martijn Pieters mailto:mj@digicool.com

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UgoFast is alive
by Jeff Nielsen 17 Dec '99

17 Dec '99

Fellow Zopsters... After too many long hours, I'm finally ready to launch my web site, http://www.UgoFast.com. UgoFast uses Zope v1.9.0 as the engine to generate HTML pages with data from the events database. If you have a spare moment, drop by UgoFast and then drop me an email at Jeff(a)UgoFast.com with any comments and critiques you might have. I appreciate any feedback. If something isn't working, it's probably just me fixing something as I prepared for the "official" launch on 1 January 2000. Zope Rules! Jeff Nielsen.

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Zope Weekly News
by Mike Pelletier 16 Dec '99

16 Dec '99

G'day, Zope Weekly News is a digest of some of the useful and interesting events which have occurred on the various Zope mailing lists and the Zope.org site. It is published each Wednesday evening. Any opinions contained in the Zope Weekly News are those of the chronicler exclusively. Announcements * Digital Creations announced that the next generation of its Zope application server will leverage browser technology from the Mozilla project. http://www.digicool.com/News/mozilla * Python.Org announced the Redesign Python.Org Contest. The talented winner shall receive great fame and... erm... that's it, really. Have a try and have some fun. http://www.python.org/Redesign.html New Products * "slef" has released an intriguing product called ZInstaller. The objective is to enable Zope users to download and install new Zope packages from the comfort of their web browser. http://www.zope.org/Members/slef/ZInstaller Updates * Zope 2.1.1 has been released. This is a bug-fix release that includes fixes for better handling of multiple-write conflicts, undo-related problems and problems that prevented certain third-party Zope products such as Squishdot from working. For more information, see the file CHANGES.txt in the doc directory of the distribution. http://www.zope.org/Products/Zope/2.1.1/ * "4am" released an update to his Python Methods product. The present version is 0.1.7. Python Methods are, as the name implies, methods written in Python, but which live in the object database rather than on the filesystem. http://www.zope.org/Members/4am/PythonMethod * "Bill" reports that KnowledgeKit 1.6.7 has been released: "This is a minor feature upgrade. Per request, there is now a simple How-To object integrated into the KnowledgeBase portfolio. While not yet as cool as cool as Zope.org's, it is usable." http://www.zope.org/Members/Bill/Products/KnowledgeKit * Another alpha release of XML Document is out. This release fixes a number of bugs thanks to patches form diligent Zope users and added a few minor features. http://www.zope.org/Products/XMLDocument * "anthony" has submitted "yet another minor release of SQLSession". http://www.zope.org/Members/anthony/software/SQLSession/ * Jim Washington <jwashin(a)vt.edu> updated his ZRTChat product. ZRTChat provides real-time chat with an entirely HTML interface. (No java, javascript, etc.) The present version is 0.2.0. http://www.zope.org/Members/jwashin/ZRTChat * Pavlos Christoforou <pavlos(a)gaaros.msrc.sunysb.edu> has released version 0.2.0 of FSSession. FSSession manages session data (that is, per-browser data) and stores it on the filesystem. (Compare with SQLSession.) http://www.zope.org/Members/gaaros/FSSession Zope.org items * "Duncan" submitted a How-to entitled "Session data stored in URL": "This how-to describes how to use Anthony Baxter's SQLSession product in conjunction with 4am's SiteAccess product to store a session id in the URL without the need to set any cookies." http://www.zope.org/Members/Duncan/SessionURLs * "Bill" posted a new How-To: "How to delete a catlogAware object that is no longer catalogued". http://www.zope.org/Members/Bill/Documentation/CatalogBadness Notable Discussions * There is a very informative thread with the subject "Zope stability". Michel explains how to use Zope's debugger and a number of techniques for developing in safe sandboxes and synching with a production server are discussed. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015181.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015209.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015214.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015240.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015245.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015267.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015296.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015301.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015351.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015389.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015427.html * Michael A. Alderete <alderete(a)be.com> kicked off a thread called "Zope Performance Methodology?". He outlines in good detail what would be needed to produce a document about optimising Zope's performance. He goes into everything from the underlying platform to Zope tuning parameters to optimal coding practices. Numerous people write in to fill in his blanks. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015254.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015270.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015270.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015278.html * Brian Lloyd discusses the future of Zope in "Zope direction and 2.2 roadmap". http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015297.html * The ZODB and Zope objects are explored in "Philosophical question - Zope Objects vs Entities in a RDBMS". Questions raised (and answered): How well does the ZODB scale? How does the ZODB compare to traditional RDBMS for efficiency? Can I tread ZClass objects like normal Python objects? What limitations does Linux's filesystem impose, and how can I get around them? How can I make SQL results act like 'real' objects? http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015299.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015300.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015359.html * Timothy Wilson <wilson(a)visi.com> asks if anyone has written an application such as a technical support department might use to track issues. A couple leads are given. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015317.html * "reality check" -- Occasionally becoming a religious debate, Jonothan Farr <jfarr(a)speakeasy.org> sparked off a mailstrom with forwarded comments on Zope's lack of documentation. Opposing lines are quickly drawn: Zope has the worst documentation known to mankind vs. Zope's documentation is pretty good, really. Zope is too hard vs. Zope is pretty easy, application servers are just complex. Zope needs to appeal to a wider audience vs. That's what FrontPage is for. Amongst the lively expressions of opinions, some attempt to advance the documentation cause. Members of the ZDP remind everyone that they are busily working away, and would you like to lend a hand? Also, the next generation of Zope documentation is briefly described. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015393.html http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015445.html * Bruce Perens's Zope server was on the receiving end of a multiple slashdotting. He reports that it came through with flying colours. http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope/1999-December/015506.html -- Mike Pelletier.

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ANNOUNCE: Zope 2.1.1 has been released
by Brian Lloyd 14 Dec '99

14 Dec '99

Hi all, Zope 2.1.1 has been released. This is a bug-fix release that includes fixes for better handling of multiple-write conflicts, undo-related problems and problems that prevented certain third-party Zope products such as Squishdot from working. For more information, see the file CHANGES.txt in the doc directory of the distribution. As always, you can get the 2.1.1 release from Zope.org: http://www.zope.org/Products/Zope/2.1.1/ Brian Lloyd brian(a)digicool.com Software Engineer 540.371.6909 Digital Creations http://www.digicool.com

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ANNOUNCE: ZRTChat 0.2.0
by Jim Washington 13 Dec '99

13 Dec '99

Announcing 0.2.0 version of HTML ('Realtime') Chat for Zope (ZRTChat). There are minor incompatibilities with the old versions, so don't install it if you have a previous version chat in progress. The big incompatibility difference is that instance variables were renamed because variable names like 'user' and 'message' are too popular and acquire too easily in unexpected ways. Major Changes: The user controls were moved off the message pane and into their own frame, so they don't get reloaded with every refresh. There is now an icon for the messages in the contents page. Users may choose to see 5 or 10 messages in addition to the previous 25, 50, 75, and 'all'. Viewing the messages in reverse order is now user-selectable. Submitting a message refreshes the chat pane immediately; no need to push 'refresh' to see if it went out. I think there are a couple of other things, so look at the changes page. Still no java/javascript. Still the same Marilyn Monroe grin icon. It is available at: http://www.zope.org/Members/jwashin/ZRTChat And please let me know if you have trouble with it or want it to work differently. I can't fix it if I don't know if it's broken. Regards, -- Jim Washington

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FSSesion v0.2.0
by Pavlos Christoforou 10 Dec '99

10 Dec '99

Zopistas - FSSession 0.2.0 is available at: http://www.zope.org/Members/gaaros/FSSession FSSession is now a product that participates in Zope's transaction machinery. It should be more efficient and includes a method to return appropriately formed URLs depending on client support of cookies. Pavlos

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