November 2001 - Zope-Dev

how to determine Zope version from ZMI or method?
by Mitchell L Model 06 Nov '01

06 Nov '01

How can I tell what version of Zope is running, either interactively in the ZMI or in a DTML or Python method?

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how to contribute a how-to document?
by Mitchell L Model 06 Nov '01

06 Nov '01

I'm ready to start contributing how-to's, products, etc. to www.zope.org. I've created an account and see that I can add things through the ZMI. I've read about the reviewing process. However, what I haven't found is information on the form of a how-to document (and the "DTML Source" link doesn't appear at the bottom of How-To pages the way it does some places on the Zope site; actually, I don't even know if How-To's are DTML methods or DTML documents) or how one constructs the canonical Product page with sections like "Download" and "Installation" and links to specific version in a table showing release, version, and date. Does everyone just mock this up however they feel like it? Is there a form or template somewhere? Are there examples I could see? I feel like I missed a document somewhere telling me how to do this.

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www.zope.org's Zope needs updating!
by Mitchell L Model 06 Nov '01

06 Nov '01

Is there some reason www.zope.org is still running Zope 2.3.2? I was preparing a DTML example for publishing which broke because the prefix attribute in dtml-in tags is not supported in that version.

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We are Unable to Reach your Web Page
by adam.brett＠mail.internetseer.com 06 Nov '01

06 Nov '01

There appears to be a problem in reaching the following Web page from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: http://lists.zope.org/pipermail/zope-dev/2000-March/004014.html Error: Host Not Found This error is most commonly due to an Internet connection problem and does not necessarily indicate that your server is down. As recommended by the robot Guidelines, this email is to explain our research activity and to alert you about the connectivity error we encountered. InternetSeer, the world's largest web site monitoring service, does not store or publish the content of your pages, but rather uses the information to update our ongoing Web Connectivity Study. To learn more about our study results or to request InternetSeer to continue monitoring your Web site in this way, visit: http://scclick.internetseer.com/sitecheck/clickthrough.jsp?I5s57f5h5g5d5j5k… If you find this information about the availability of your Web site useful, we would appreciate your feedback. Should you prefer not to receive these error notices in the future please let us know by replying to this email and placing "remove" in the subject line. You will be removed from receiving further email error notices. Adam Brett Analyst Manager cs-adam.brett(a)mail.internetseer.com InternetSeer.com "Your Remote Web Site Monitor" http://www.internetseer.com PS. We will send you a courtesy email when we are able to reach your Web page again. ##zope-dev(a)zope.org##

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Re: [Zope-dev] how to determine Zope version from ZMI or method?
by Mitchell L Model 06 Nov '01

06 Nov '01

>[This is a zope(a)zope.org question, redirecting there.] Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out. I've been accidentally sending messages to zope-dev instead of zope recently due to an email abbreviation confusion. I'll fix immediately. -- --- Mitchell

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Re: Opinions wanted: clean distribution
by Chris Keyes 06 Nov '01

06 Nov '01

I know your never going to get everyone to agree, as all sys admins like to do things in a slightly different way. I'm probably way out of my depth, but, working on systems with many Zope instances which are 'owned' by various people, I have a directory which holds all my bases and a directory for all of the instances. This means that all a users specific files are in one place and makes administration easier, especially for things such as FTP access to an individual instance and so on. From my memory (I think I asked ChrisW) the Products from the instance, override the products in the base. Ideally I guess no products should be in the base, unless they are going to become part of the core, and so will always be there in the future. I've also heard romours of some kind of product / package system although I don't think that its been developed yet. Not sure if that fits into your plans or not. Just my rough thoughs. Good luck with the project, its a great idea. Is it worth pushing it to the main list? ChrisK > From: Behrens Matt - Grand Rapids <Matt.Behrens(a)Kohler.Com> > To: zope-dev(a)zope.org > Cc: matt(a)zigg.com > Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2001 15:33:20 -0500 > Subject: [Zope-dev] Opinions wanted: clean distribution > > I'm experimenting with a few ideas for a "clean distribution" of Zope; > i.e. one that builds on the INSTANCE_HOME concept to produce a > production-ready layout for UNIX-like systems. My hope is that it will > someday make life a hell of a lot easier for Zope packagers (such as > myself) as well as end-users. I'd love for the Zope install script to > create this layout by default, and am certainly willing to dedicate code > to the effort. > > I'm looking at a software home directory like this: > > BINDIR > zopectl > zopeinst > > LIBEXECDIR > pcgi-wrapper > > LIBDIR > zope (eveything from lib/python) > Products > Extensions [1] > ZServer [1] > inst [1] > utilities [1] > > ETCDIR > zope access > inituser > instances [2] > > VARDIR > zope INSTANCE [2] db [3] Data.fs (et al.) > run [4] *.pid > gadfly [3] > [5] > > > [1] I am not sure if putting these folders here clashes with anything. > Extensions, especially, I am worried about. > > [2] Instances should be named and built by 'zopeinst', which takes care > of reasonably secure default permissions. The 'instances' file would > list these along with start parameters and flags that zopectl > understands; zopectl could be used to shutdown/startup zope instances in > system startup/shutdown scripts this way. > > [3] These directories should be readable and writable only by the user > who runs Zope. > > [4] This directory, if Zope is started as root, should be writable only > by root. > > [5] Other instance-specific files such as Zope.cgi would live here. > start/stop duties would be taken over by zopectl. > > The top level directories (BINDIR, LIBEXECDIR, LIBDIR, ETCDIR, VARDIR) > would be configured at install time but would probably default to > /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/libexec (or sbin for non-BSDers), > /usr/local/lib, /usr/local/etc, /usr/local/var. > > I'm really looking for compatibility issues that anyone has or any > suggestions for improvement. I plan to make a proposal out of this > eventually. Please make sure you cc me at home (matt(a)zigg.com) on replies. > >

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Remotely running in Control_Panel
by Greg.Moore＠zcsterling.com 06 Nov '01

06 Nov '01

I had a question for the group. I am concerned that a remote user can attempt to run things in the Control_Panel area. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Example (1) An example is with Yihaw. I can run the following URL on a Zope system for an installed product. http://localhost:8080/Control_Panel/Products/YihawDirectory/YihawChannel_add I Receive, Zope Error, Error Type: KeyError, Error Value: title (edited for brevity). Even though I got an error, I got some information about the system. Is this not the beginning of a security problem? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Example (2) With ZWiki I can do the following: http://localhost:8080/Control_Panel/Products/ZWiki/basic-0.9.5/FrontPage I get a full page for a site that doesn't exist. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - In some instances (such as http://localhost:8080/Control_Panel) I get a request to log into the administrative portion. Good! Should I not always be required to log in? Is this an issue with Yihaw? An issue with my permissions? Thank you! Greg Moore

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RE: [Zope-dev] Opinions wanted: clean installation (was distribut ion)
by Toby Dickenson 06 Nov '01

06 Nov '01

> -----Original Message----- > From: Behrens Matt - Grand Rapids [mailto:Matt.Behrens@Kohler.Com] > Sent: 06 November 2001 13:12 > To: tdickenson(a)geminidataloggers.com > Cc: Matt Behrens; zope-dev(a)zope.org > Subject: Re: [Zope-dev] Opinions wanted: clean installation (was > distribution) > > > Toby Dickenson wrote: > > > Do you really want products and extensions in VARDIR? To me > they feel > > more like configuration, and less like data. > > > > My preference: > > > > XXX/etc/zope/INSTANCE/Products : containing symlinks to > > XXX/lib/zope/AllZopeProducts : containing products > > > > My second preference: > > > > XXX/lib/zope/INSTANCE/Products : containing products > > > > But I really dont like: > > > > XXX/var/zope/INSTANCE/Products : containing products > > > I think the biggest problem with this setup is that installation of > additional products should be able to be done without permission to > modify the base installation. I dont think this is a problem, because of a complication that I havent told you about yet I actually use two user accounts per instance, called "myinstance" and "myinstancemaster". zope runs under the "myinstance" user account, and that user can only write to the equivalent of VARDIR. Any installation changes are performed under "myinstancemaster". the "myinstancemaster" user can write to the equivalent of XXX/etc/zope/INSTANCE for his own instance, where he can create symlinks to common products, symlinks to his own products, or indeed create whole product directories for things that will never be shared between different instances. I also allow the instancemaster to choose which version of zope to use, with a symlink in the equivalent of XXX/etc/zope/INSTANCE directory > There is work afoot to make products > installable TTW, too, so the running user must have permission to > install his own products for this to work properly. That is a very bad idea from a security point of view, for the same reason that we dont allow TTW editing of external methods. For the same reason, I do not allow the "myinstance" user (the user of the zope process) to write to the Extensions directory where external methods are stored. > Given this, VARDIR is really the only hierarchy we can count on to be > writable at all (BINDIR/LIBDIR should be writable only at OS-level > package installation time, and ETCDIR can be locked down by > the sysadmin > for normal operation). Thats true if ETCDIR==/etc and LIBDIR==/lib, but I had been assuming that was unlikely. Had you not? Indeed, I dont think that works in your proposal. Zope need to write inituser while it is running, if that file is ever to be of use. I also think its unlikely we would want to lock the 'access' file so tightly. As for VARDIR==/var.... well, maybe.

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Using default values for variables in class definitions ... Is this o.k.?
by Joachim Werner 06 Nov '01

06 Nov '01

Hi! I am facing the following common problem: Let's say I have a filesystem-based Python Zope Product that uses propertysheets. I have defined a couple of properties and already have a number of instances of the class. Now I add a new property to the code. While this would not break anything if I worked with ZClasses, the filesystem-based propertysheet implementation will raise an error if I visit my existing instances' Properties tag because the property is not there. To avoid that, I have used the trick to add a default value for the new property in the class definition: class News(...): meta_type = 'News' ... myNewProperty='Green' ... def ... etc. This works perfectly, but I have been told that I should not do this because of the way ExtensionClasses work. Does anybody know more about that? Cheers Joachim

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Updating old catalog indexes (through ZMI)
by Morten W. Petersen 04 Nov '01

04 Nov '01

Hi, I'm wondering if it would be possible to add a method to the ZCatalog so that upgrading indexes would be as easy as pushing a button. Some critique: I find it confusing the index listing in the new catalog only says "pre-2.4 index", when it would be easier to upgrade if something was known about the index type. Regards, Morten -- About Thingamy: http://www.thingamy.com - For the CEO http://www.thingamy.org - The good stuff http://www.thingamy.net - Rants

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