See standard apologies below. I'm quite interested in using SquishDot as a base for web page support for university-level courses that I teach. I like the article-based discussion groups and the general slashdot-like presentation. I'm willing (at this stage) to do whatever Python and DTML programming is required for the special needs for course pages (there shouldn't be all that much). I also like the security model - I can define roles for Instructors, Teaching Assistants, Registered Students and Anonymous Guests, etc., with different rights for each. A couple of things I need though: 1. A way to identify in DTML the rights of the current user, so pages can be adapted. I would like to get the loginId for the user, but more important, I think, would be just a way to test for various roles. EG: "is the current user a registered student?", etc. A Quick reading of Publish.py (in Zope 1.10.3) seems to show all the authorization logic deeply bound into method 'publish', and it would be nice to have that brought out into a separate method. 2. A way to import a few hundred userids, passwords, and roles, from our own registration databases. Or would it be better to let the webserver authenticate people? - I was going to let Zope do it. 3. A way to have a 'login' link that allows a user to change their identities at any time (more useful for me during testing, but I would like anyone to be able to view pages anonymously at any time, but only have to login when they wish to post an unmoderated response to an article. I haven't seen any obvious way to do any of this. Did I miss something? Is anyone else working on something similar? If this is already documented somewhere (if only in Python code), pointers to that would be just fine. Standard Apologies: I'm pretty new to Zope, and I haven't exhaustively searched the mail archives, so my apologies if its already been covered. Time is running out, the first day of classes approaches all too quickly ... I'm a competent programmer, and not afraid to get my hands dirty ... thanks neal -- Neal Holtz http://www.docuweb.ca/~nholtz Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6. nholtz@docuweb.ca