October 1999 - Zope - Zope lists

Q: Performance, ZODB3, etc. for an Open Source Projekt (Tracking System)
by Oliver Andrich 21 Oct '99

21 Oct '99

Hi, some times ago I asked for some advice on implementing a problem/request tracking system. Back then I received a very, very good and stimulating answer. And I started to design the system using some ZClasses, a ZCatalog based search interface and everything else Zope provides for a document based tracking system. This went all very fine and the performance was ok for the first take of the project. So I made the "biggest" mistake in my life - I did a presentation and so on for my boss. He was very impressed and thought that this could be the tool of choice to replace all the various tracking and calendar applications we use in our company. Ok, I thought for round about 100 users Zope on a big machine would be ok and started to implement a first prototype. Well, today my boss discovered, that a lot of ISP offer such a thing for their customers. That means all our customers can use the system for personal Todomanager, calendar application and so on. Various people and commercial customers should be using it as a basis for a collaborative task manager and so on. Ok, our sales is keen on offering such a thingy and this is basically ok. But I, the poor guy who has to develope this thing, have some questions and doubts. Well, I think I should outline the features. The system is a ... - job/request/task/problem tracking system with follow ups - collaborative workgroups should be possible - calendar application (yes, ZClient cron scritps will be required) - users should be able to create subfolders and filters for incoming tasks - multilingual!!!!!!!!!! Is clear what I am about to do? Well, some people might know PTS or Keepstone. I have to develope a better version of these systems or something that fits our needs more then these systems do. Ok, this looks as a Zope application of choice and yes I will use Zope in any case, but .... - What happens if round about 3000 users use the system for work and appointment? This is means round about 6000 to 9000 new documents (ZClasses with ZCatalog support) per day. - I will face 1500 concurrent users, which will access quite a complex Zope application. - How safe is ZODB3 in such an environment? A lot of transactions will happen on this system!!!! Users, ZClient scripts, etc. pp. - Is it possible to split/multiplex a Zopeserver? - Has anybody experience with synchronizing/replacating several Zopeservers? Well I basically like the idea of a pure Zope solution, and I thought that it is perfect for round about 100 users which create roundabout 500-2000 new documents per day. But with this requirements and user number I have some problems to think of a pure Zope solution. I would prefer a Zope frontend for a SQL database. Or am I wrong with my assumption and Zope is much more powerful, then I believe it to be? I can think of a farm of Zopeservers which access a single SQL database server or so, the Zoepservers update the application by retrieving it from a master Zope server and so on. This is something I can imagine. But what about a pure Zope solution? Yes, some might think. Why doesn't this guy go and buy consulting contract from Zope company. Well, the problem is that my company will offer this service as a goody for our customers for free. So no immediate money will be created by the project. And we will release the complete application and so on as an Open Source application, cause we heavily depend on Open Source software as an ISP and so we can give something back to community. If people request support, we will sell support contracts, but we won't charge money for the product or the documentation. So I try to get my answers through the usual Open Source channels. ;-))) Best regards, Oliver -- Oliver Andrich, KEVAG Telekom GmbH, Schlossstrasse 42, D-56068 Koblenz Telefon: 0261-3921027 / Fax: 0261-3921033 / Web: http://rhein-zeitung.de

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Urm.
by David Bolack 21 Oct '99

21 Oct '99

I'm new to Zope, so fumbling around in teh documentation has been.. difficult. I pulled down the banner ad package to see 1) If it suited our needs and 2) how difficult adding packages was going to be. It's in a .zexp file, which I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to import. Can someone step by step me?

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Re: [Zope] Editing downloaded + installed product?
by Thomas B. Passin 21 Oct '99

21 Oct '99

-----Original Message----- From: Michel Pelletier <michel(a)digicool.com> To: 'Thomas B. Passin' <tpassin(a)mitretek.org>; zope(a)zope.org <zope(a)zope.org> Date: Thursday, October 21, 1999 3:55 PM Subject: RE: [Zope] Editing downloaded + installed product? >> >> I'm having the same problem using Python code as an external >> method. The >> trouble is that when you change the code and rrun it, the >> Python interpreter has >> continued to run all the while (since it is running ZServer). >> It thinks that >> all your code has already been bound to the existing method >> and class names you >> defined the first time you ran the code, and it doesn't >> realize there have been >> changes. > >If you click on an external method, and click 'Edit' Zope will reload >the method. Further, if you run Zope in debug mode (-D in z2.py) >external methods will reload every time they are called. > Clicking "Edit" will reload the external method, but my external method calls another Python module which imports or calls a number of other modules. Clicking "Edit" doesn't help with code changes to those modules. I have even introduced deliberate errors into those modules, only to have them run just fine (until the server is restarted). I've also tried flushing ZOPE's cache. This problem has nothing to do with ZOPE directly - it's a Python interpreter thing. Yet it makes developing external code in ZOPE annoying. BTW, I AM running Zope (2.0.1) in -D mode. >> On the other hand, those reload() calls would take time to >> execute, so it should >> be possible to remove them for the production system easily >> and without ill >> effects. > >In python, you can simply sniff the Globals model for 'DevelopmentMode' >equalling a true value. If it it's true, do something debuggish (like >call reload). This sounds useful, once I've worked out how to reload everything, not just the "import spam" parts. > >-Michel Thomas Passin

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RE: [Zope] Trapping Login's
by Chris McDonough 21 Oct '99

21 Oct '99

Dan, Are you using Medusa (the Zope-supplied web server)? And are you using HTTP basic authentication (popup login)? If so, use the Z2.log file it generates to see who has logged in and when... the user login name is one of the fields in the log. I might be tempted to use a cron job and a Z2.log parsing script to mail a login summary to me on a periodic basis instead of doing that job through Zope... -----Original Message----- From: Dan Rusch To: zope(a)zope.org Sent: 10/21/99 2:58 PM Subject: [Zope] Trapping Login's Hey all, Does anyone know of a way to "hook" into the login of zope powered site so that I can "log" who has logged in and when. Additionally, I want to set up a notification system for the beta phase of a project so that I get notified if a user logs in (I can handle the notification part via e-mail, just looking for a trigger method). The only thing I can think of is to have all users URL to the same place and login there. DR _______________________________________________ Zope maillist - Zope(a)zope.org http://www.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope (Related lists - please, no cross posts or HTML encoding! To receive general Zope announcements, see: http://www.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce For developer-specific issues, zope-dev(a)zope.org - http://www.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev )

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RE: [Zope] Editing downloaded + installed product?
by Michel Pelletier 21 Oct '99

21 Oct '99

> -----Original Message----- > From: Thomas B. Passin [mailto:tpassin@mitretek.org] > Sent: Thursday, October 21, 1999 3:16 PM > To: zope(a)zope.org > Subject: Re: [Zope] Editing downloaded + installed product? > > I'm having the same problem using Python code as an external > method. The > trouble is that when you change the code and rrun it, the > Python interpreter has > continued to run all the while (since it is running ZServer). > It thinks that > all your code has already been bound to the existing method > and class names you > defined the first time you ran the code, and it doesn't > realize there have been > changes. If you click on an external method, and click 'Edit' Zope will reload the method. Further, if you run Zope in debug mode (-D in z2.py) external methods will reload every time they are called. > On the other hand, those reload() calls would take time to > execute, so it should > be possible to remove them for the production system easily > and without ill > effects. In python, you can simply sniff the Globals model for 'DevelopmentMode' equalling a true value. If it it's true, do something debuggish (like call reload). -Michel

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problems with manage_clone
by Oliver Frommel 21 Oct '99

21 Oct '99

Hi, my Folders look like this: /templ/link (DTML Doc) /m945/process (DTML Meth) /subfolder one thing I try do do for testing is to clone the "link" object with the "process" method which looks like this: <dtml-with sendung> <dtml-call "manage_clone(link, 'new_id', REQUEST)"> </dtml-with> After reading the Acquisition docs and the Namespace HowTo i thought that the namespace stack of "process" would contain the root folder and the "templ" folder too. But when i run the "process" method i get the following error: Error Type: NameError Error Value: link do I have to put the "link" object into the root folder? assuming i get this to work how can i then clone a new object to the "subfolder"?? Is there a way to provide manage_clone() with dest. object with a certain namespace? Thanks Oliver

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Re: [Zope] Editing downloaded + installed product?
by Thomas B. Passin 21 Oct '99

21 Oct '99

From: Stefan Hoffmeister <Stefan.Hoffmeister(a)Econos.de> >: On Thu, 21 Oct 1999 12:48:49 -0400, Michel Pelletier wrote: > >>> From: Stefan Hoffmeister [mailto:Stefan.Hoffmeister@Econos.de] > >>> (Re)starting ZServer takes about 18 seconds on my development >>> NT4 system >>> (192 MB, 540 Mhz overclocked Celeron). I somehow feel that >>> this is an a >>> tad bit inappropriate time lag. >> > >Let me add "for development purposes" to clarify. > >Look, I am used to blazingly fast compilers - Object Pascal (Borland >Delphi) and Borland C++Builder with well-done pre-compiled headers. > >19 seconds delay, combined with the "manual" action of shutting down the >server + starting it up again - I perceive that as an eternity. > >What do I do in these 19 seconds? > >>the ability to do >>a python reload could be elaborated and implimented, of course you have >>to source code so you can provide a patch. ;) > I'm having the same problem using Python code as an external method. The trouble is that when you change the code and rrun it, the Python interpreter has continued to run all the while (since it is running ZServer). It thinks that all your code has already been bound to the existing method and class names you defined the first time you ran the code, and it doesn't realize there have been changes. A Python reload() call, as mentioned above, can work if you have imported a module using "import spam". You could put an import spam/reload(spam) pair into the function call. But reload() doesn't work for all flavors of the import statement. In my case, some of my code can be changed on the fly, and for other parts I have to restart the server. Perhaps some Python expert can give us working examples (not guesses!) showing how to construct modules and import trees so they will always update without us having to restart the server. On the other hand, those reload() calls would take time to execute, so it should be possible to remove them for the production system easily and without ill effects. Thomas Passin

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Trapping Login's
by Dan Rusch 21 Oct '99

21 Oct '99

Hey all, Does anyone know of a way to "hook" into the login of zope powered site so that I can "log" who has logged in and when. Additionally, I want to set up a notification system for the beta phase of a project so that I get notified if a user logs in (I can handle the notification part via e-mail, just looking for a trigger method). The only thing I can think of is to have all users URL to the same place and login there. DR

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RE: [Zope] Editing downloaded + installed product?
by Michel Pelletier 21 Oct '99

21 Oct '99

> -----Original Message----- > From: Stefan Hoffmeister [mailto:Stefan.Hoffmeister@Econos.de] > Sent: Thursday, October 21, 1999 12:25 PM > To: zope(a)zope.org > Subject: Re: [Zope] Editing downloaded + installed product? > > (Re)starting ZServer takes about 18 seconds on my development > NT4 system > (192 MB, 540 Mhz overclocked Celeron). I somehow feel that > this is an a > tad bit inappropriate time lag. Why? Zope has the read in the entire object index, initialize itself, it's products, and it's external resource connections. This is alot of work. > Is Linux (or any other platform) any better in this respect? > Is there any > way to speed up this cycle? Once again, Why? > Assume, for instance, that I need to hot-fix some problem in > WhatEver_Python_Product - in contrast to "just" reloading the product > shutting down the whole server is a tad bit too much, don't you think? If you're 'hot-fixing' a production site enough times for this to matter, than you are putting much, much more at risk to your application than 18 seconds of non-response. As a seperate issue, the ability to do a python reload could be elaborated and implimented, of course you have to source code so you can provide a patch. ;) > >Python zproduct development should definitely be done > >on a non-production server for this reason. > > Is there any other way? :-) Any development of any form whatsoever on any platform in any language for any application should not be done on a production server unless you want to get burned. -Michel

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RE: [Zope] Bad use of XML Document??
by dale w lance 21 Oct '99

21 Oct '99

> At 05:34 PM 10/19/99 -0500, you wrote: > >I am trying to use XML Document to upload my stylesheets also. > >Is this a no-no? > > What do you mean exactly by this? I am trying to use XSL and XSLT (since IE5.0 understands these directly, as well as other tools). I am not using CSS. I try to upload the XSL (XML format) Document and get the error. > > If you are trying to use an XML Document to hold non-XML > content then this > is a bad idea :-) If on the other hand you are trying to > associate XML with > a CSS style sheet, then this is a fine idea, though your CSS Actually it is XSL style sheet. > since is not > XML thus should be stored in a DTML Document or a File. > > >Error Type: Bad Request > >Error Value: Invalid or duplicate property id > > > > This implies that there's an attribute in your XML which Zope > doesn't like... > > Hope this helps. > > -Amos Thanks Amos. I did manage to get a couple of other stylesheets loaded. It seems there is some bad attribute in the document (although I can't figure out how to find it) That will teach me for trying to copy straight MS code (an example I downloaded from MS) :-p Dale

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