February 1999 - Zope

RE: [Zope] Tree snapshot?
by Paul Everitt 24 Feb '99

24 Feb '99

On 22-Feb-99 Pavlos Christoforou wrote: > > http://box1/devel/catalog/manage_exportHack > > http://box1/live/catalog/manage_importHack > > Will these work across versions? (to let me export my > database from version 1.9 > and load it in version 1.10) Yes. The changes in 1.10 are just cosmetic -- making the names permanent and putting an interface on it. The Import/Export facility really just provides hooks around some exposed low-level database support. I'm quite curious whether someone in the Zope community sits down for an hour and creates an "import over the web" facility. Though it might be wrong for the general case (for security purposes, a real Zope "import over the web" will need more thought), some users will find it perfectly acceptible. --Paul

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Tree snapshot?
by julian＠zereau.net 24 Feb '99

24 Feb '99

How would it be possible to create a transportable snapshot of a subset of the Zope pseudo-filesystem tree? My plan is: I grab a bundled snapshot of, say, http://box1/devel/catalog and install it under http://box2/live/catalog. Is this possible? And, is there any existing way to do this, or will I have to code it? --- Julian Morrison Programmer (Zereau Ltd)

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Where the DB?
by Max Murdock 24 Feb '99

24 Feb '99

Hello people, let me bore you with a question: I'va installed the ODBC stuff, created a sample db with access 97 (test.mdb), selected to adda az odbc db connection, then the form appears, and whatever i write on it I obtain always "Invalid connection string: MS Access 97 Database". I think my problem is that Zope cannot see my test.mdb, in fact the "Select an ODBC Data Source" field is full of default text... Where should I put my archive? I've not been able to determine where the var "manage_ODBCDataSources" points at, is there anybody ggod-willed explaining this reference mechianism to me? TIA Max M

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Strange error
by julian＠zereau.net 24 Feb '99

24 Feb '99

I have a strange problem with the following DTML snippet:     <p>Mode M unsupported</p>   (map_type_to_mode is a query using "type" and returning one or no results in "mode") If the result is "m" it works perfectly, if the result is "a" and the target page is not a search form, it works. If the target page is a search form, it fails with a traceback: Invalid Header (0): Traceback (innermost last): File /tmp/Zope-rootdir/usr/lib/python1.5/ZPublisher/Publish.py, line 879, in publish_module File /tmp/Zope-rootdir/usr/lib/python1.5/ZPublisher/Publish.py, line 595, in publish (Info: /cabletrack/action) File /tmp/Zope-rootdir/usr/lib/python1.5/OFS/Document.py, line 184, in __call__ (Object: action) File /tmp/Zope-rootdir/usr/lib/python1.5/OFS/Document.py, line 395, in decapitate ValueError: (see above) --- Julian Morrison Programmer (Zereau Ltd)

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Zap is final
by Michel Pelletier 23 Feb '99

23 Feb '99

Greetings Zopeheads, Zap-1.1.0 is final. Zap is a preconfigured Zope plus Apache (actually, it's only Apache that extracts onto an existing Zope). There are two oft stated reasons for Zap: 1)To give a working and functional implementation of Zope with Apache. This is proof-of-concept-mode. 2)To give another production quality solutoin to the Zope community. Zap's Apache has been trimmed down to the minimum to be especially useful for server up Zope systems. This is production-mode. If you are having problems getting Zope to work with your Apache, *Zap is where to turn*. Logic dictates that if it doesn't work for you, but it does work for Zap, then you are doing something wrong, or you are using the wrong version of something, or something is missing in your configuration. Thus, *before* reporting a problem with your Apache, try Zap! Integrating Zope and Apache generates many of the support questions. Usually it isn't Zope's fault -- Apache has entirely too many knobs. While we obviously want Zope and Apache to work together, ultimately Apache hacking is outside the scope of Zope. Therefore this is our new Apache policy: <policy> Members of the Zope community, including Digital Creations, provide software and guidance for integrating Zope and Apache. There is no one official way to integrate them. There is no one person or company responsible. Digital Creations and others have worked hard to make integration with Apache as seamless as possible, but ultimately this is outside of the scope of Zope. The Zap project was formed to stress this separation of Zope and Apache, as well as indicate that supporting Apache is a community function. We are committed to supporting the Apache in Zap, which is a snapshot in time of Apache with a know-working configuration. Beyond that, all bets are off. </policy> Idealy, someone in the Zope community who is intimately familiar with Apache would like to take the Zap project over. That kind soul will be given all Zap related materials, and will be given access to the Zap area of the Zope site. The Zap page is: http://www.zope.org/Community/Projects/Zap/ There you can read the small FAQ, and download the package. If you have questions you'd like to put in the FAQ, please send them to the Zap site maintainer (at the moment, that would be me). Regards, -Michel

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Working with objects
by Jason Spisak 23 Feb '99

23 Feb '99

This is probably a namespace question, but I am trying to get an object to reference the properties of another object. I have a document with id 'company' and I have a DTML document called 'contract' that I want to take the property of 'company_name' from 'company' and put it at the top of the the 'contract' document. Using Zope 1.10pr I tried...    I tried others, but still nothing. Any suggestions? Jason Spisak webmaster(a)mtear.com Under US Code Title 47, Sec.227(b)(1)(C), Sec.227(a)(2)(B) This email address may not be added to any commercial mail list with out my permission. Violation of my privacy with advertising or SPAM will result in a suit for a MINIMUM of $500 damages/incident, $1500 for repeats.

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default dtml attrs, exception handling
by Quinn Dunkan 23 Feb '99

23 Feb '99

Zope vs. Python 1.5.2b1: apparently something has changed in what 1.5.2b1 does with threads. Upon upgrading, I got "C API version mismatch" warnings, so I went to lib/python to recompile everything, at which point ThreadLock.c revolted when it couldn't figure out what a type_lock was. type_lock is defined in <python1.5/thread.h>, but not in <python1.5/pythread.h>, and ThreadLock.c was including pythread.h (given that PyList_SET_ITEM was defined). I have no idea what the distinction is between the two, and what PyList_SET_ITEM means, but I had it include thread.h instead and everything worked fine... Is there a way to specify default dtml tag arguments? I have a bit of dtml that renders a database entry. Currently I fill null values from python, but I'd like to be able to specify them from dtml. Unfortunately that seems to mean putting a null= tag on every single #var, and changing them all when I change one. Is there a way you could put something like:    at the top of your document to accomplish that? Or is there some other way I'm missing? A suggestion for exception handling: Currently, it appears that exceptions are caught and handled by a Response object. It has hard-coded responses to exceptions, but you can make your own error pages by making your own exception with a __str__ method that returns text that contains "<html>". As far as I can tell, though, there is no way to replace the generic exception handler (so that if os.stat throws os.error (or OSError, they changed it in 1.5.2b1 (stop it, guys!)) you get something of your choosing rather than "Sorry, an error occurred." Also, there is no way to decide per-exception how to handle tracebacks. Even if you just want to raise a "invalid search string" FormError exception, you still spew a meaningless traceback at the user. It can be hidden if you unset Z_DEBUG_MODE or __bobo_hide_tracebacks__ = 1, but then what if you want "real" errors to spew a traceback? Currently, I do stuff like: error_doc = HTMLFile('error.dtml') class BoboError(Exception): title = "Generic Error" def __init__(self, msg): self.msg = msg def __str__(self): return error_doc(self) and then subclass BoboError. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to hide tracebacks... I also have two questions re dtml: From my reading of DT_String.FileMixin.read_raw, the source file is reread every time the dtml is cook()ed, which is only the first time it is __called__. There is some mucking around with a __changed__ method, which I assume is an unimplemented attempt to not reread the file if its mtime is the same as before. Is __changed__ supposed to del self.cooked? What's going on here? Rereading dtmls is desirable so I don't have to restart pcgis just because the dtml changed... Speaking of which, of course the suggested shutdown() method works fine, I was thinking fuzzily when I said it didn't apply. Now I just write a little script that tickles shutdown methods with proper authentication, etc. Perhaps, if the script exits with 0, pcgi-wrapper should just silently restart it in the background instead of complaining and restarting it on the next request? You'd just get a "Program exited with code 0, restarting..." instead of a panicked SERIOUS APPLICATION ERROR from bobo (but then I guess we'd lose messages from scripts that died with 0 on accident... but does that ever happen?). The second question: I've seen references to the ability to create your own dtml tags, but no mention in the DTML docs on how to do that. Is this possible? If so, where can I read about it? I'd actually like to create my own html tags, so I can use DT as a generic html/whatever generator, at least until I can do it in XML. Does this seem reasonable?

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Test, please ignore
by Michel Pelletier 23 Feb '99

23 Feb '99

Don't read me, I'm just a test. -Michel

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RE: [Zope] Tabula in Zope 1.10
by Paul Everitt 23 Feb '99

23 Feb '99

Kevin wrote: > I read the early Tabula Manager's Guide doc that Paul sent the > URL for (thanks, Paul!). It looks like a Really Useful Thing(tm). > I know that the machinery is in the 1.10 pr1 release... will the final > 1.10 release actually have the management screens and "normal" product > interface for Z Tables? Ugh, I really need to make sure I don't misrepresent things. We have some software that is "above the line" and some that is "below the line". Above the line software is not generally available. We might save it for our consulting customers, for partners (people that give case studies, etc.), or people contributing to projects (for instance, when the Zone takes off). Below the line software is publicly available. Some is supported (e.g. Zope) and some is unsupported (UserDB and Confera). Z Tables is above the line. The "guts" of Z Tables are below the line. The reasons are mostly pragmatic: 1) We don't have enough resources to support *more* free stuff, as we are having a hard enough time supporting what's already there. 2) The user documentation is incomplete. 3) There is no programmer documentation. 4) Adding value to consulting relationships. > Also, something that wasn't clear to me from the > Manager's Guide: > can you update (as in add/delete records) from a Z Table through the > web? The doc makes it appear that Z Tables are updated only > by uploading > data files. There is a "Data" tab that lets you add a single record, edit a record, or delete one/many records. --Paul Paul Everitt Digital Creations paul(a)digicool.com 540.371.6909

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RE: [Zope] load balancing between multiple zope instances, readon ly mode.
by Paul Everitt 23 Feb '99

23 Feb '99

Anthony wrote: > can I run multiple zopes off the same var/ directory, with all but one > in readonly mode? I thought I remembered seeing something > about readonly > mode in the mailing list, but I can't find it now... This *should* work for 1.10, according to Jim. He'd like people to try it and report problems. Note though that this comes with a caveat. The read-only processes do *not* see updates in the main process -- they have to be restarted to see them. --Paul Paul Everitt Digital Creations paul(a)digicool.com 540.371.6909

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