February 1999 - Zope

ANNOUNCE: FAQ Tool sample Zope app.
by Amos Latteier 01 Mar '99

01 Mar '99

Hi Everyone: As part of writing an article on Zope for WebReview, I've put together an example FAQ Tool for Zope. If you've seen Guido's FAQ Wizard then you know what the FAQ Tool is about. http://www.zope.org/WebReview You can try out the FAQ Tool online, and download it. (Note: the example FAQ is not a real FAQ, please don't enter useful information into it. Hopefully, we'll get a real Zope FAQ online soon.) One of the interesting things about this example is that it was built with the 'Lever' by creating a Product in the Control Panel and working from there. This is the first time that I've used the Lever and I have to say I like it. I think that this is the future of Zope Product authoring. The Lever basically allows you to create a Zope Product through the web without any programming. And as a special bonus, the Lever *is* documented in the Zope Manager's Guide. In fact, that's how I learned how to use it ;-) I think that the Lever will be even cooler when Zope Classes are out, since then you will be able to make changes to your Product in the Control Panel, and all your instances will be updated. Anyway enjoy, and send me your feedback. -Amos P.S. You may notice that the FAQ Tool is not searchable. When Zope gets searchability, then so will the FAQ Tool. I probably won't get around to adding searching to the FAQ Tool before that. However, the basic search indexing libraries are there in 1.10.2, and I do accept patches for those of you who can't wait ;-)

4 4

Zope 1.10.2 RPMS (in progress)
by Eric Kidd 28 Feb '99

28 Feb '99

I'm working to create a set of Zope RPMS for 1.10.2. These will be a bit different from those created by Jeff Rush <jrush(a)summit-research.com> (his work did provide great inspiration, though). In particular, I'm aggressively pursuing integration with RedHat 5.x. What's new: * Zope runs as nobody, not as suid root. * Files are installed according to the File System Hierarchy standard. * PCGI logs get rotated weekly if logrotate is installed. * Write access is carefully confined to a few directories. * Upgrading Zope should do the Right Thing with your Data.bbb file. * Zope code no longer lives in the system's Python directory--everything is isolated from other Python programs. * Updating the RPMs for new versions of Zope should be easy. Right now, I have RPMs for zope and zope-pcgi. If you're interested in testing them (and know how to back up your existing Zope database), send me mail. In the long run, I'd like to work with anybody who's interested in making Zope and RedHat Linux play nicely. Cheers, Eric

1 0

Is there a standard database interface?
by Piers Lauder 28 Feb '99

28 Feb '99

I notice that ZGadFlyDA's DB class provides "tables" and "columns" methods in addition to "query", which I find very useful. However, ZSybaseDA and ZMySQLDA provide only "query". Is there supposed to be a standard interface for DB classes?

1 0

ZMySQLDA installation
by Timothy Grant 28 Feb '99

28 Feb '99

Hi all, This is probably more of a newbie Linux question than a newbie Zope question, but I'm going to ask it here anyway: I would like to connect Zope to a database, so I have setup both PostgreSQL and MySQL. My reading tells me that MySQL is probably the better choice as a web backend (Any comments from those of you more knowledgable than I would be appreciated!) So I downloaded the MySQL source, compiled, installed and tested it. It looks like I did it right. I then downloaded the ZMySQLDA from the Zope site. I have followed the directions--I think, but get the following error when trying to do the initial make: [tjg@puddleglum src]$ make -f Makefile.pre.in boot rm -f *.o *~ rm -f *.a tags TAGS config.c Makefile.pre python sedscript rm -f *.so *.sl so_locations VERSION=`python -c "import sys; print sys.version[:3]"`; \ installdir=`python -c "import sys; print sys.prefix"`; \ exec_installdir=`python -c "import sys; print sys.exec_prefix"`; \ make -f ./Makefile.pre.in VPATH=. srcdir=. \ VERSION=$VERSION \ installdir=$installdir \ exec_installdir=$exec_installdir \ Makefile make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/local/zope/Zope-1.10.0pr1-linux2-x86/lib/pytho n/Products/ZMySQLDA/src' make[1]: *** No rule to make target `/usr/lib/python1.5/config/Makefile', needed by `sedscript'. Stop. make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/zope/Zope-1.10.0pr1-linux2-x86/lib/python /Products/ZMySQLDA/src' make: *** [boot] Error 2 Any help would be greatly appreciated. -- Stand Fast, tjg. =================================================== Timothy Grant VP Technology/CTO Avalon Technology Group tjg(a)avalongroup.net www.avalongroup.net (503) 246-3630 voice (503) 246-3124 fax

1 0

Z SQL Methods
by Dave G 28 Feb '99

28 Feb '99

Before I wander off into uncharted territory has anyone done this? (yep, I RTFM). I have a a sql db I need to allow searches on and I'd like to allow the user to search one table for a match and recieve a list of returns. I want each returned item to be a hot link to a multitable query, nothin new here at all. Search table foo for matches with a "like" select, user clicks on an item and a new query is run using params from the clicked link. The next page would be the result of the multitable query. I've not a clue how I should format the sytax for first result returned using DTML. Before I start into it has anyone else done this yet? DAve. "On the Plains of Hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the Dawn of Victory, sat down to wait, and waiting -- died"

1 0

DTML #var null= problem/patch
by richard.jones＠fulcrum.com.au 28 Feb '99

28 Feb '99

Hi all, I'm having trouble getting DTML to format None values the way I want them. I have a database table with a bunch of string columns which may be NULL. They range in size from 2 characters to 256. I want to be able to edit them in a HTML form. The way I've been constructing this form is something like: <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="title" VALUE="" MAXLENGTH=256 SIZE=20> <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="language" VALUE="" MAXLENGTH=2 SIZE=2> and so on... The null="" argument to var doesn't get used unless I supply a fmt= argument _and_ that format string fails to format the value. The problem is that the representation I want is fmt="%s", and that formats a None value quite nicely. I can just hear Jim Fulton saying "this problem disappears using Missing.Value" but I don't want to have to integrate Missing.Value into the rest of the codebase we have. At the moment, I've patched the DT_Var.py render() method so it detects the null= argument regardless of the fmt= argument: *** DT_Var.py.old Fri Feb 26 11:19:49 1999 --- DT_Var.py Fri Feb 26 11:19:53 1999 *************** *** 269,274 **** --- 269,276 ---- val = special_formats[fmt](val, name, md) elif fmt=='': val='' else: val = fmt % val + elif have_arg('null') and val is None: + val = args['null'] # finally, pump it through the actual string format... fmt=self.fmt YMMV, Richard

4 4

RE: [Zope] Incoming mail, scheduling
by Paul Everitt 28 Feb '99

28 Feb '99

Eric wrote > Zope is really great! I've been demoing it to various folks who need > websites, and there's been quite a bit of drooling going on. Great to hear! > Several of my product ideas, though, need missing > functionality. I'd love > to be able to deliver mail to the Zope database (for bug > trackers and such) > and to schedule periodic tasks. The Z RPC module in the Zope distribution would serve your needs for both of these. With it you can write a Python script with objects that are connected to Zope via HTTP. In the first case, you would create an email alias that feeds the email to your script which connects to Zope. In the second case you would create a cron job that connects to Zope and tickles some URLs. In effect, Z RPC allows you to externally-script Zope using HTTP. --Paul

2 1

RE: [Zope] How well does Ztables/Confera scale up?
by Paul Everitt 28 Feb '99

28 Feb '99

Butch wrote: > I have this project that I'm planning to use Zope on (it's still in > the evaluation stage) > and I just started looking at Confera (which uses pieces of > ZTables/Tabula) which is has > some of the things I need (specifically, search-text capabilities) -- > I'll have to hack it > a bit to simplify it (I just need to be able to add/edit/delete > records into a DB) - but The ZTable machinery buried in Zope is quite powerful. I've loaded a 27,000 record, 27 Mb version of the Internet Movie Database into a ZTable. The memory footprint stayed well under control and the searches were effectively instantaneous. Unfortunately it isn't yet supported for anything except ZTable, which is only available to consulting customers. --Paul

1 0

- PostgreSQL DA Release
by Maurice Davis 28 Feb '99

28 Feb '99

I've posted a Zope PostgreSQL Database Adapter to the Contrib area of the Zope site. It uses the PyGreSQL-2.2 extension module. Source for the module and sample data are included in the tar file. Please send me any suggested improvements and bug reports. Maury

3 4

How well does Ztables/Confera scale up?
by Butch Landingin 28 Feb '99

28 Feb '99

I have this project that I'm planning to use Zope on (it's still in the evaluation stage) and I just started looking at Confera (which uses pieces of ZTables/Tabula) which is has some of the things I need (specifically, search-text capabilities) -- I'll have to hack it a bit to simplify it (I just need to be able to add/edit/delete records into a DB) - but my concern is with how well it scales up (the database is not actually that big -- it's about 4-6 Megabytes in size, 500 records -- yep, that means each record is a pretty big text file)). So I was wondering if I could get some feedback about this (especially from people who have used or are using Confera/ZTables/Tabula)-- if you have database sizes bigger than this -- about the software(OS/webserver)/hardware (memory/CPU/HD) requirements, whether it's on the internet or not, etc. I know I've seen some Zope sites handle volumes bigger than this but I don't know if they're using Tabula for this kind of volume or just some SQL database (which is also an alternative I'm looking at -- but I won't have the text search capabilities unless I use some DB-specific functions and it won't be platform-independent). Thanks in advance, Butch Landingin butchland(a)yahoo.com _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

1 0