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PyWebPerf: a web performance tool
by Richard Jones 28 Aug '02

28 Aug '02

================================= PyWebPerf: a web performance tool ================================= I'm happy to announce (at long last) that I've released version 1.0.0rc1 of my web performance tool. Documentation is fairly thin on the ground, but then the tool itself is pretty trivial to use. The sourceforge project is at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywebperf/ with the download at: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=55210&release_id=1075… The bundled README explains installation and usage. It's short, but then the tool is pretty simple to use :) About PyWebPerf =============== Written in 100% Python, tt does a fair job of emulating a web browser (including threads, redirects, image/stylesheet loading, all with cookie handling). You can control the number of threads, the number of times to repeat the test, basic authentication parameters, and the level of verbosity (at the most verbose, it lists times for all components of a page). Richard (http://mechanicalcat.net/tech/)

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[ANN] 'Reference': a somewhat safer 'Symlink' (symbolic link)
by Dieter Maurer 23 Aug '02

23 Aug '02

Sometimes, you want to refer from one place in the Zope Web site hierarchy to an object in another place. The reference should behave almost as the refered to object. I.e., you want something like a symbolic link in Unix. Shane's Symlink product allows you to do this. However, Symlinks are too good in behaving like the refered to object. Link and original are almost not distinguishable. Therefore, it is very easy to modify the link and accidentally change the original, too. That's why I consider Symlink a bit unsafe and recommend to use it only under very restrictive circumstances. References is very similar to Symlink. However, a Reference has its own id, title, icon and management facilities. Therefore, it can be quite easily distinguished from the target. I consider it safer. However, there are still some security weaknesses. See the README file in the distribution, for details. Download: <http://www.dieter.handshake.de/pyprojects/zope> Dieter

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ZEO 2.0 beta 1 released
by Jeremy Hylton 23 Aug '02

23 Aug '02

We've just released ZEO 2.0 beta 1.It's available from http://www.zope.org/Products/ZEO. We think this release of ZEO 2 is fairly stable, although we may do one more beta release to add some performance improvements. There are many changes since ZEO 2.0a1, which was released in May. The CHANGES.txt file describes the most significant changes; I've included the 2.0b1 changes list at the end of this message. The ZEO 2 protocol is not backwards compatible with ZEO 1. If you want to upgrade a system, all the clients and servers need to be upgraded at the same time. I don't plan to provide backwards compatibility for 2.0, but could be convinced otherwise if there is significant user demand. In the alpha release, we reported that the test suite was a bit fragile on Windows. It is much better now. We have tested on Windows 2000 and Windows 98, and expect all the tests to pass. The tests may run very slow on Windows, because many of the tests spawn server processes. The Windows scheduler can make this very slow. On occasion, we've seen the tests hang for several minutes before finishing successfully. After the alpha release, I suggested that there would be several more alpha releases to add new features. We didn't have the resources to pursue the new features. Instead, we plan to get a solid 2.0 final release out as soon as possible. New features will be postponed until 2.1. Jeremy The changes since ZEO 2.0a1 release are: - Added version identification. The variable ZEO.version is a string identifying the version in the style of sys.version. The same string is also available in ZEO/version.txt for people who want to check without loading the code. - Fixed performance problem. The low-level socket code was often calling send() with very small strings instead of joining them together before calling send. The small string variant ran afoul of the Nagle algorithm and delayed TCP acks. - Fix bugs in server handling of queued transactions Several bugs in 2.0a1 could cause the storage to lock up when it attempted to restart a transaction that was queued waiting for an earlier transaction to finish. The locking code in the two-phase commit methods was revised to properly use the condition variable protocol. Thanks to Tim Peters for pointing this out. - Avoid locking up server on unexpected client exit If a client disconnected unexpectedly in the middle of a two- phase commit, the server would never release the commit lock. - Very long log messages avoided. Some of the logging messages at BLATHER and lower were producing very long log messages because they included all the argument of method calls, even when the argument was a list with thousands of elements. These log messages are now truncated at a reasonable length. - Fix log rotation The SIGHUP behavior was fixed. If the ZEO server receives a SIGHUP, it will re-initialize its logging code. Thus, it is possible to rotate the log files and then send a HUP. - Fixed problem handling signals. The asyncore and zrpc error handlers would trap SystemExit if it was raised by a signal handler. They now ignore it. - pack() can be called on a read-only connection This ends up being very convenient for packing a read-only server, even though it isn't obvious that pack() is a read- only operation. - pack(wait=1) now waits A bug caused pack(wait=1) to return immediately, even though the pack was still running. - Fix bug in history(). The history() implementation prevent the client from returning more than one item. - Enhanced logging for blocked transactions. If a transaction had to be blocked because another transaction was executing, the server would log an info message. Now it also logs a message when the transaction is resumed, so that it doesn't look like the transaction was blocked forever. - Fixed bug in logging call for store(). The logging call could raise NameError. - Removed debug argument to ClientStorage constructor. It had no effect. - Removed ZEO.trigger There were two copies of the trigger module in the last release. The one in ZEO.trigger was removed, because it is only needed in ZEO.zrpc.trigger. - Added minimal tests of start.py. There are only run on Unix.

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VerboseSecurity and BTreeFolder2 - old products new again
by Shane Hathaway 22 Aug '02

22 Aug '02

VerboseSecurity =============== VerboseSecurity is an add-on product for Zope that helps explain the reason for denied security access during site development. It replaces the ZDebug product. This product attempts to explain the complete reasoning when Zope security denies access. It shows what object was being accessed, what permission is required to access it, what roles map to that permission in that context, the executable object and its owner, the effective proxy roles, and other pertinent information. All of this information appears in the exception message when access is denied. This product is designed for Zope 2.6. However, it should work with Zope 2.4 and Zope 2.5 as well. It is licensed under ZPL 2.0. The current release is 0.4, since it is a continuation of ZDebug 0.3. http://hathaway.freezope.org/Software/VerboseSecurity BTreeFolder2 ============ BTreeFolder2 is a Zope product that acts like a Zope folder but can store many more items. It replaces the BTreeFolder product. This product descends from the BTreeFolder product. Since they are more optimized, BTreeFolder2 instances can hold more objects than BTreeFolder instances. But since there are products that depend on the internal structure of BTreeFolder, the product has been renamed to make it possible to have both installed at the same time. New software should depend on BTreeFolder2, not BTreeFolder. This product also includes CMFBTreeFolder, which will be made available if you also have CMF installed. BTreeFolder2 is licensed under ZPL 2.0 and requires Zope 2.4 or later. The current release is version 0.5.0. http://hathaway.freezope.org/Software/BTreeFolder2 Shane

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Local File System v1.0 released
by jfarr 22 Aug '02

22 Aug '02

Finally, the long awaited next release of the LocalFS product! I've updated it to be a modern Zope product, but the essential guts are still the same rock-solid code that's been in the wild for 3-4 years now. There may still be a couple of new minor bugs, especially doc bugs in the help screens or admin pages. I appreciate any and all feedback, which is now even easier to give, since... LocalFS is now being managed on SourceForge. The LocalFS project page is at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/localfs/ >From here you can download releases, submit bugs or feature requests, or join one of the support forums. Here's what's new (from the change log): - Fixed regex deprecation warning. - Fixed possible IOError on module loadup trying to log exceptions. - Fixed acquisition problems with LocalFile and LocalDirectory objects. DTML rendered from the file system should now work just like DTML in the object database. - Fixed a permissions bug with the manage_upload() method. It was looking for the wrong permission. =( - Updated management pages to new Zope look and feel. - Removed redundant edit page and manage_edit() method. All properties are now edited through the properties page. - Added help system documentation. - Removed automatic text mode translation. All files are now copied as binary (with a nice little performance boost!) - Removed old, crusty win32wnet.pyd. - Changed manage_upload() to use a new strategy for determining the object id from the file path. First we check for Unix path seperators. If we find one we grab everything after the last one as the filename. Next we check for Windows and then Mac path separators and hope we never get a Unix path without a Unix path seperator but with one of these characters ('\' or ':'). Finally, if we never see any kind of path separator we just assume there is no path and use the whole thing as the filename. I think this should work for most browsers. :-/ - Changed object creation protocol. External adapters now receive an open file object instead of a blob of text. - Added get_size() and bobobase_modification_time() methods to LocalFile objects. - Added new manage_createDirectory() method to LocalDirectory objects (uses the 'Manage local files' permission). Big, huge thanks to all the people who have contributed ideas, code, and feature requests over the years. Hopefully it will all pay off when you download the new version! ----------- Also: Right now, I'm putting the wraps on LocalFS v1.1, which is a massive improvement over the current version. Just to give you a sneak preview of the changes: - Handles all major object types out of the box: Image, File, DTML Document / Method, Zope Page Template, Script (Python), ExternalMethod, ZSQL Method, even Database Connections! - Copy and paste from the object database to the file system and vice versa. - Local directories are now represented as Folder objects, so they should behave just like a normal ZODB Folder. - Because of this, object 'data' (e.g., the actual content bits in an image file) is fetched in a lazy manner. This means that the data is not loaded until the object is rendered, but all other object properties are available at all times. Remember, this is just a teaser! These features are not in version 1.0! Sorry, you'll just have to wait another week or two. =) Cheers, --jfarr

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ReStructuredText Document 1.0 released
by Richard Jones 21 Aug '02

21 Aug '02

This is a Zope interface to the docutils project's ReStructuredText format. It offers: - through-the-web editing - handling of errors (with control over the reporting level) - FTP editing (with access to the config properties and errors) - extraction of the document title from the text itself - configuration of the stylesheet used - source view ReStructuredText is a new, but already solid STX (Structured Text) format that builds upon the wide range of existing STX formats, borrows the good ideas and learns from their mistakes. For a quick intro, see: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/rst/quickstart.html For the curious, the orignal "source" text for that document is at: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/rst/quickstart.txt For a discussion of the existing and NG StructuredText formats in Zope, see: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/spec/rst/problems.html Download at: http://www.zope.org/Members/richard/ZReST Docutils / ReStructuredText home: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/ Richard

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External Editor 0.5 - Softens hands while you edit!
by Casey Duncan 20 Aug '02

20 Aug '02

I am pleased to announce the release of External Editor 0.5, its continuing mission: to rescue humanity from the clutches of evil (evil textareas that is). Here's what's new, straight from the change log: New lock borrowing feature allows you to reuse your own DAV locks or integrate with other software that uses them. - Bug editing large files squashed. - Squishdot incompatibility fixed. - Better Unix command line handling. - New "Use external editor" permission to control access to external editor. - Easier to integrate into your own applications and products. - Now edit directly from the ZMI find tab. - Other bug fixes Download At: http://www.zope.org/Members/Caseman/ExternalEditor What is it? External editor is a new way to edit through the web. Instead of crappy textareas and kludgy protocols, External editor lets you use the editor of your choice directly from your browser. Once configured you can click on the edit icon in the ZMI and use your favorite client side applications to edit your Zope objects. Works with both text and binary data. Works with any browser that supports helper applications. Enjoy! -Casey

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Silva 0.8.3 released
by Martijn Faassen 19 Aug '02

19 Aug '02

Hello everybody, Infrae has released Silva 0.8.3. Silva is an open source through-the-web authoring system for structured content. This release incorporates various bugfixes and new features, among others an improved infrastructure for adding new Silva object types to the system. It also comes with an upgrade script to upgrade 0.8 installations to the new version. * "More information"http://www.infrae.com/products/silva * "Features":http://www.infrae.com/products/silva/features * "Download":http://www.zope.org/Members/faassen/Silva * "Upgrade":http://www.zope.org/Members/faassen/Silva/UPGRADE.txt Regards, Martijn (at Infrae)

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ANNOUNCE: Pound - reverse proxy and load balancer - v0.9
by Robert Segall 19 Aug '02

19 Aug '02

This is to announce the release of Pound v0.9. New in this release: - Added support for listening on multiple ports/addresses (please see the man page for new configuration directives) - Added support for lock/unlock (required for WebDAV). There is a new configuration option for allowing these requests to pass through. - Support for "old-style" HTTP responses, where the content is simply between the headers and EOF. This was necessary for people who access Pound through Squid. - Fixed a serious problem on FreeBSD: the pthreads implementation defined too small a stack size. - Fixed a small problem in URL parsing. What is Pound (from the Web page) - a reverse-proxy: it passes requests from client browsers to one or more back-end servers. - a load balancer: it will distribute the requests from the client browsers among several back-end servers, while keeping session information. - an SSL wrapper: Pound will decrypt HTTPS requests from client browsers and pass them as plain HTTP to the back-end browsers. - an HTTP/HTTPS sanitizer: Pound will verify requests for correctness and accept only well-formed ones. - an HTTP/1.1 to 1.0 proxy. - a fail-over-server: should a back-end server fail, Pound will take note of the fact and stop passing requests to it until it recovers. - a request redirector - it will pass client requests to separate groups of servers, based on required URL (pattern matching) Pound was specifically developed to serve as a front-end for multiple instances of Zope running on top of a common ZEO storage, but can be used with any other web server. A patch for the Python source of z2.py is available as part of the distribution to allow using Pound's SSL capabilities. For further information, download, etc. please see http://www.apsis.ch/pound The software is at version 0.9 (beta quality). Further testing (especially under heavy loads), improvements and suggestions are welcome. Pound is distributed under the GPL. Enjoy and let me know how it works for you. P.S. - from following the discussions on this list and some questions we received it seems like some people consider the VHM as something to be used only in conjunction with the Apache mod_proxy. That is simply not true - the VHM works perfectly well on its own: just click on the mappings tab and set whatever mappings you require. VHM will translate requests and responses happily back and forth, including the nasty base tag and absolute URLs (such as in images). -- Robert Segall Apsis GmbH Postfach, Uetikon am See, CH-8707 Tel: +41-1-920 4904

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Plone 1.0 alpha 3 released
by alan runyan 19 Aug '02

19 Aug '02

Plone 1.0alpha3 released! Requires: CMF-1.3 final You can get the tarball: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/plone/CMFPlone-1.0alpha3.tar.gz?download Partial Changelog: http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=106005 This release (un)fortunately adds some major feature enhancements that are necessary to skirt around a major design flaw of CMF. Geoff Davis has contributed code (portal_factory) that will put a proxy object in place of a newly created object. Once validation succeeds (now done by portal_form tool) it will then create a new object and call the xxx_edit script on the object. The portal_form object now acts like a controller and is in charge of form validation. We have also made it so portal_properties is a container and can contain "PropertySheets". (in reality they are SimpleItemWithProperties) The portal_navigation tool has been refactored heavily. Along with tons of UI and usability enhancements, various bug fixes and code cleanups. I would like to NOTE. You can still use the old API's. They should have depreciation warning when you use them. the link object is the only object that has been changed to use the new API. Nothing yet uses the portal_factory creation proxy mechanism. You have to manually munge the URL to get this behavior. We will provide more information in the next few days on how to use this feature. Please test this rigorously. Submit all your bugs/feature requests to http://plone.org/collector Based upon your feedback we will migrate the rest of the objects to the new machinery for the beta if we don't hear enough ground swell against this idea. We think its best to use the new machinery because it factors out the form validation, navigation and controlling point into separate objects. I hope you will help us test this release and once we get the Discussion UI fixed we will issue a beta. regards, The Plone Team p.s. Geoff Davis and Helge Tesdal have significantly contributed to this release.

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