November 2000 - Zope

Passing Variables to a Wizard
by Nestor A. Diaz L. 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

HI, Does anybody know how can i pass variables from a product to a Wizard. I mean: I am using the PTK to create my own product however PTK use the Wizard as the default method to add a product, how can i pass variables to a wizard form a python product ? I can pass variables to the edit method using the following: editForm=HTMLFile('dtml/edictoEdit', globals(), typeList = type_list) Where typeList is a global array. But i don't know how can i do the same with a wizard. Thanks -- Nestor A. Diaz Ingeniero de Desarrollo Engendro.com - Comercio Electronico sobre Linux Email: nestor(a)engendro.com - WWW: http://www.engendro.com

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Can't get simple count to work.
by Ignacio Valdes 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Hello all, I have a Squishdot site at http://www.linuxmednews.com that I've successfully been able to make a page that has a one line link of all the articles that have appeared on the site. Unfortunately, the number has grown to a few hundred and I need to make it display n lines at a time as well as count them so I can keep track. I am trying to use the following code to display them with a count, but I've tried just about everything and spent hours on this 'simple' task, but can't get it to work. This is as close as I could get only it numbers the articles that appeared on a particular day, then jumps to the next day that articles where posted. i.e. not a smooth 1 to n count. You can see what it does at: http://www.linuxmednews.com/linuxmednews/display_old_articles Could anyone have a look? -- IV <dtml-let currtime="ZopeTime()"> <dtml-in "_.range(1,all_cnt)" > <dtml-if "date_list(_['sequence-item'])"> <dtml-let num1="_['sequence-index']"> <dtml-call "REQUEST.set('article_found',1)" > <dtml-in "date_list(_['sequence-item'])" > <BR> <dtml-var "num1"> <IMG SRC="<dtml-var SCRIPT_NAME >/<dtml-var icon url_quote>" BORDER="0"> <A href="<dtml-var site_url >/<dtml-var id url_quote>/index_html"><dtml-var title></A>  <dtml-if reply_cnt>(<dtml-var reply_cnt>)</dtml-if> by <dtml-var author><FONT size=2> on <dtml-var date_posted> </dtml-in> </dtml-let> </dtml-if> </dtml-in> </dtml-let>

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DTML source
by Tom Deprez 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Hi, Are there some sites which publish there DTML source(structure)? I'm particulary looking on how several navigation, menu, ... structures are implemented in Zope. On Zope.org you can see the DTML-source. Unfortunately not the implementation of the navigation (or the menu on the left). Tom.

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Thank you DC
by Andy McKay 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Ive just noticed that in Zope 2.2.4, the location of the object underneath the manage_tabs has had those annoying spaces removed so its now /docs/ActivePython instead of / docs/ ActivePython. That means I can cut and paste it. Yeah!!! Thanks DC.

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Newbie Question
by Dany Rioux 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Hi everyone, Simple newbie question... :) I've made a directory called News into which I will put files named newsXXX. X being a number from 999 to 001. What I want to do is to tell zope to put each file into a document. Now, here is what I figured out. <dtml-with News> <dtml-in ???> <--- that's where I'm stuck. I don't know how to iterate through a directory ... I want ALL the newsXXX displayed. </dtml-in> </dtml-with> How do I do that? TIA Dany ---.oo0O--------------O0oo.-------- Dany Rioux UnderSoft Inc. Business www.dating-reviews.com rdany(a)dating-reviews.com Personal www.drioux.com rdany(a)drioux.com -------.o00O-------O00o.-----------

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seeking zope success stories in higher education
by Jerome Alet 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Hi, We are planning to choose a platform to build a portal for distance learning, with which we want to Build and Serve online multimedia courses, online exams, calendars, keep track of students work and results, forums, etc... I've got a list of criterias the platform must fill to be chosen, and at first glance Zope fills at least 90% of them, and probably more if I look more closely at the Zope products already available. This is a big project, and some people have already done some work using WebCT. I've read in the zope-edu wicki the comment on WebCT, I already know that many people (at least 35) are interested byt his subject because they are referenced as contributors in this wicki, so I naively conclude I'm right in thinking that Zope is the good choice for us. So I have to write a document explaining the pros (and cons) of choosing Zope, and I want some references of Zope uses in higher education if possible. Please could someone send me any testimonial on the (successful or not, and why) use of Zope in higher education, the products which might help us (we will at least need SquishDot, the LDAP adapter, the Oracle adapter, the KnowledgeBase product, etc...). I'm also interested in testimonials about the use of WebCT or similar products. Thank you very much. PS: As always this is urgent :-( Jerome ALET - alet(a)unice.fr - http://cortex.unice.fr/~jerome Fac de Medecine de Nice http://wwwmed.unice.fr Tel: (+33) 4 93 37 76 30 Fax: (+33) 4 93 53 15 15 28 Avenue de Valombrose - 06107 NICE Cedex 2 - FRANCE

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Python and EJB (J2EE)
by Hung Jung Lu 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Python and EJB (J2EE) ===================== Searching through comp.lang.python newsgroup archive (python-list(a)python.org) and the zope(a)zope.org mailing list, I have not been able to find much about EJB (Enterprise Java Bean) and Python/Zope comparisons. (J2EE is Java Two Enterprise Edition, basically another jargon for any architecture based on EJBs.) I believe this field deserves to be explored a little bit more. If Python is going to be more used in the corporate environment, it has to be made stronger. This message is kind of unorganized, but I would like to have comments/feedback from other people. The following message shows that I am not the only one interested: >ruben <ruben(a)techfactor.com> 11/08/2000 in comp.lang.python: > >Coming from a Java background and recently using Python for application >development, I have a question. Is there an equivalent to Enterprise >JavaBeans in Python? If so, please point me to some resources!!! Similarly Joe Grace <occam(a)serv.net> has posted an explanation on J2EE in the Zope mailing list: http://zope.nipltd.com/public/lists/zope-archive.nsf/0dec1f578f18f116802568… I am starting to look into Java EJB, and I must say that despite all the hype, it is totally horrible. I can understand the goals of EJB, but I wonder whether something simpler and cleaner might be better. EJBs, especially entity beans, have largely failed and have disappointed many Java developers, or so it seems from the comments I have received from other people. First off: what is an EJB? There are plenty of books out there, there are plenty of websites out there, but you'll probably be hard-pressed to find someone that has actually worked with EJBs. I've never liked the names "Java Beans" and "Enterprise Java Beans". These are marketing names. We need some more generic names. "Java Beans" are an attempt by Sun to implement component programmming. That is, the idea is to have component classes on a single machine (virtual machine in the case of Java) that can be shared/used by different programs. In this sense, "Java Beans" are much like DLLs, Unix shared libraries, Python modules, or Microsoft's COM, ActiveX stuff. "Java Beans" are designed to be shared within one single machine. "Enterprise Java Beans" are much more complex than "Java Beans", and they are aimed at distributed computing: EJBs are designed as classes/components to be shared by multiple machines. In this sense, they are more like CORBA, or Microsoft's DCOM. Therefore: (1) Java Beans <--- local components, run on the same machine (2) Enterprise Java Beans <--- distributed components, distributed computing, multiple machines, potentially located in different geographic locations. These components often have instance pools running in multiple threads, and often are transactional. ------------- What about Python? Or Zope? Simple distributed computing is not too hard to implement. CGIs in fact are a way of distributed computing. Python does have DCOM (Mark Hammond) and CORBA. But I don't think DCOM/CORBA are the way to go. In Python/Zope world, I guess Fredrik Lundh's XML-RPC is the closest starting point for distributed computing, and eventually for something similar to EJB container. (See http://www.zope.org/Members/Amos/XML-RPC for XML-RPC in Zope and http://www.pythonware.com/products/xmlrpc/ for XML-RPC in Python.) There is also (See SOAP http://static.userland.com/xmlRpcCom/soap/SOAPv11.htm ), which is an extended version of XML-RPC. For more information on XML-RPC, visit http://www.xmlrpc.com/ . Zope can be used as equivalent to EJB container. But Zope is a general webserver with a lot of features that a simple server don't need. ------------- EJBs are there because of a few good reasons: (1) Multi-threaded, workload distribution, instance pooling (2) Security (3) Transactional (4) Managed persistence (for "entity beans" in the EJB jargon) These are all important requirements for the corporate world. Can Python do all these things? The answer right now is no. There is nothing really equivalent to EJB in the Python world. ------------- Security: Python is great for rapid development. The reflection/introspection power of Python is wonderful. I particularly like the absence of the "private" keyword. In C++ and Java, corporate security is implemented at the language level, which makes these language quite annoying, in my opinion. That being said, corporates DO need security mechanisms. If Python were to be used in corporate environment, there MUST be a security interface layer. We don't want any employee to be able to peek into the president's salary, for instance. That is, absolute data hiding at a higher level is necessary. As Java/C++ have shown, data hiding at the language level not only is an illusion, but ties up programmers hands too much. So, it's best to leave the language itself free, and implement the data hiding with a higher-level mecahnism. Distributed computing is good for that. For Python, that also means that in remote procedure calls, only data should be passed, not objects. We want a better separation of data from code. Fredrik Lundh's XML-RPC seems to do well in this separation. Incidentally, this means that in the corporate world, primitive types (numbers and strings, basically) are still going to be primitive types for the foreseeable future. Therefore, a language like Ruby that treats primitive types like objects actually are in disadvantage, I think. ------------- Can we develop Python into something equivalent to EJB? I don't know, but that'll be so nice. :) Also, I'd like to see it happen without repeating the mistakes of CORBA/EJB: they were too ambitious, too complicated. Simple things (like the basic HTML) actually can gain much wider acceptance. ------------- If Python were to become used in the corporate environment, something must be done to make it work in distributed computing. (1) XML-RPC is a good starting point. I think it's very important to keep things simple. (2) Data/Code separation: I think it's important to have something that extracts the primitive data members for passing them in the remote call argument, like Fredrik Lundh's xmlrpclib module. (3) Utilities to help mapping objects into database persistence. (4) Distributed transaction: two-phase commit is crucial. The distributed final "commit" action must be achieved in matter of milliseconds or even microseconds. There seem to be some standard ways of two-phase commit used by databases out there (XA?). So, if we want some distributed computing that is fully transactional, the standard two-phase commit scheme must be implemented. ------------- I guess what I am aiming at is an open-source Python Distributed Components Server, which would be equivalent to an EJB Container. I guess anyone with experience in corporte programming environment would agree that distributed components is the way to go, and that XML-RPC is the way to go. Right now the overhead is heavy (it takes from milliseconds to fraction of a second for the XML-RPC overhead), but with some performance boosting in the XML part (using C, I guess), it may not be too bad. If the overhead is small, people might even use distributed architecture for single machine solutions. Allie Rogers from Triple Point Technology (http://www.tpt.com/) has an article in www.xml-rpc.com ( http://www.xmlrpc.com/discuss/msgReader$1073?mode=day ) that validate my points: xml-rpc can replace and is replacing DCOM, J2EE/EJB and CORBA. But it seems that he'd like to move into SOAP instead of the simpler XML-RPC. (I can't say much because I don't know anything about SOAP.) ------------- Anyway, I am rambling. I just think that we as a community ought to push for a light-weight open-source Python Distributed Components Server... maybe even more than one version of servers, but at least one. This is the key to opening the corporate door to Python applications. And forgive me for my exaggeration, this might also provide the key to outdate all other languages like Java, Perl, etc, and put Python in its deserved place. :) Any feedback/comment/direction/pointers will be appreciated. regards, Hung Jung _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com

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How to retain applications and data during RPM update?
by Antti Akonniemi 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Is the method same as described in ZOPE-INSTALL-HOWTO? Thanks.

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Re: [Support] [SybDA]Connection : how does it work ?
by Chris McDonough 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Tony, I'd suggest sending this question to the main Zope list (zope(a)zope.org) the support(a)digicool.com email address is used for paid support customers. You'll also likely get a better response from the list as well. Thanks! - Chris On Fri, 24 Nov 2000 11:39:13 +0100 Tony Moutaux <tony.moutaux(a)titus.u-strasbg.fr> wrote: > Hello, > > I am running Zope 2.1.6 under Linux/RH6.2 on a PC. The > Sybase server is > version 11.9.2 on a Solaris station with DNS name > "sybstat" on port 2040 > (or sybase server name "sybtest") and the database is > named "picsou". > When I try filling in the form to add a new Sybase DA > connection, the > result is always: Invalid connection string. I have try > with this > parameters : > 1-database: picsou, password: mypasswd, server: sybstat, > user: myuser > 2-database: picsou, password: mypasswd, server: > sybstat:2040, user: > myuser > But this give the same answer ... > > On Linux, I have the libraries, include files and all > running client for > Sybase and I can run isql from my PC on the Sybase server > on the solaris > station very well using the parameters of the (2-) set. > So the > connection to the Sybase server seems to work ... > > How could I check what happens inside Zope, or am I > mistaken for the > parameters values ? > > Thanks for any help. > Tony > >

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Zope with Microsoft Access
by Mike Kelland 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Hi, this is my first posting to the list, and about my 4th day working with Zope. I have a bit of a problem. All my code so far is working well. Just the following section is defying my attempts to make it run. What it does is to update a field in the database (to allow employees to quickly update their hours in the hours tracking thing I'm creating) it's complex since all the employees hours will be listed on one page and will be instantly updatable (with a select box that allows the choice of +/- (name is modify<dtml-var hoursID> and value is either + <hours already input> or - <hours already input>) and a text field for entering hours to add or subtract (name is mod_hours<dtml-var hoursID>)). The code (in the DTML document) is: <dtml-in "REQUEST.form.items()"> <dtml-if "_.string.find(_['sequence-key'], 'mod_hours')"> <dtml-else> <dtml-let mykey=sequence-key myval=sequence-item> <dtml-in "REQUEST.form.items()"> <dtml-if "_.string.find(_['sequence-key'], 'modify')"> <dtml-else> <dtml-if "_['sequence-key'][6:9] == mykey[9:12]"> <dtml-if myval> <dtml-call UpdateHours(REQUEST)> </dtml-if> </dtml-if> </dtml-if> </dtml-in> </dtml-let> </dtml-if> </dtml-in> and the SQL method UpdateHours is: update emp_hours set hours = <dtml-var expr="_['sequence-item']"> <dtml-var expr="_['myval']"> where hoursID = <dtml-var expr="_['mykey'][9:12]">; with arguments: sequence-item, myval, mykey I've tried everything I can think of but it not only refuses to do anything, it also refuses to raise an error. If anyone can help out I'd be very grateful. Thanks Mike Kelland mike(a)studiomatic.com

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