March 2001 - Zope - Zope lists

*not newbie* How do you interact with your RDMS?
by Andrew Williams 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

All: If this question is off topic, my apologies: Like many other Zope developers out there, I utilize an RDMS to store frequently changing data, instead of the Zope DB. My question is, how does everyone else interact with their RDMS's? I'm sure that most people (including myself) use the de-facto DTML and SQL Methods for rendering/storing data. Has anyone used pythonscripts, products, ZClasses, etc for RDMS interaction? If so, what do you feel the advantage is? Why did you make the decision not to use DTML/SQL Methods? Did you realize a time savings and/or speed increase? Greater flexibility? Any other advantages/disadvantages of using your method? I realize that it is difficult to make a generalization, so lets make the assumption that we are talking about reasonably large/complex frequently changing data structures being stored in the RDMS. I ask this, so I can satisfy some curiosity, gauge what other Zope developers are doing, and to decide whether I should look at moving away from DTML and use python for a web site I am designing. Thanks for any info... Andrew Williams _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

1 0

Zope BOF at Python Conference
by Andy McKay 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

Anyone attending the python conference interested in having a BOF on Zope? Areas that aren't in talks and could be of interest include CMF/PTK, ZEO etc... Cheers. -- Andy McKay.

7 9

RE: [Zope] Quickstart needs updating!
by Farrell, Troy 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

Perhaps it should instead be offered for download as a .zexp importable file. That would be a workable solution. Troy -----Original Message----- From: Michel Pelletier [mailto:michel@digicool.com] Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 5:00 PM To: Farrell, Troy Cc: 'Chris McDonough'; zope(a)zope.org Subject: RE: [Zope] Quickstart needs updating! On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Farrell, Troy wrote: > Fine by me. Hmmm. I wonder if putting the Zope Book in a /Documentation > folder isn't a bad idea. IIRC, both Apache and IIS ship with a Manual in > the install. The book is almost 2MB. Not that it's a big deal in this day and age, but I think it's cool that Zope can fit on a floppy. ;) On the flip side, if the book came with Zope, the examples could be *integrated*. That would be cool. -Michel > Troy > > -----Original Message----- > From: Chris McDonough [mailto:chrism@digicool.com] > Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 3:06 PM > To: Michel Pelletier; Donald Braman > Cc: zope(a)zope.org; luke(a)seeto.com > Subject: Re: [Zope] Quickstart needs updating! > > > Actually, it's displayed by the root index_html as well. > > I'll ax the old quickstart stuff unless anybody thinks differently. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Michel Pelletier" <michel(a)digicool.com> > To: "Donald Braman" <donald.braman(a)yale.edu> > Cc: <zope(a)zope.org>; <luke(a)seeto.com> > Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 4:41 PM > Subject: Re: [Zope] Quickstart needs updating! > > > > > > There is a new "Zope Quick Start" menu selection in Zope 2.3. I'm not > > sure why the old quickstart is still around, it should be axed in favor of > > this new screen. > > > > The Zope Quick Start menu selection is, I think, exactly what you're > > looking for. Log into Zope.org into your member area and check it out, > > you can find it in the very top frame as a pulldown menu selection. > > > > -Michel > > > > On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Donald Braman wrote: > > > > > It's true that there is not a clear message as to where a newbie should > > > start to learn Zope. The Zope home page has a "Learn Zope" section. When > you > > > click on More..., though, you don't find a tutorial, but a kind of > "about > > > page". If you are really smart (or lucky), you'll then click on the Zope > > > Book link and read it cover to cover, doing all the exercises. However, > it > > > would be good to have this be explicitly stated as generically the best > way > > > to learn about Zope for those who are starting fresh. > > > > > > I propose a tweak to the layout for the zope.org home page, breaking out > > > "about Zope" and "Learning Zope". Learning Zope would contain, of > course, > > > links to various introductory documents and how-tos. However, it would > state > > > up front what a newbie who wants to learn Zope should do. It might also > have > > > separate sections for non-programmers, people with programming > experience, > > > real wizards, etc. Obviously people can learn however they want, but > being > > > told "If in doubt, do/read this, then do/read this, etc." is helpful to > > > newbies who are generally "in doubt" about what to do. > > > > > > BTW, I think Zope Newbies could do the same. A "Learn Zope" link or area > on > > > the top page there be very nice. > > > > > > -Don > > > > > > > > > > > > [Zope] Quickstart needs updating! > > > Michel Pelletier michel(a)digicool.com > > > Thu, 1 Mar 2001 11:31:47 -0800 (PST) > > > > > > On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Joel Burton wrote: > > > > > > > On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Jeff Sasmor wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > >>>In The Almighty Lever > > > > > "An exiting new development being worked on for Zope is The > Lever... " > > > > > > > > > > (I have been working with Zope for well over a year and > > > > > still don't know what THIS is....) > > > > > > > > Yeeps. Never heard of it. > > > > > > "The Lever" is the same thing as a ZClass factory. In fact, the last > > > chapter of the Zope book explains how you can use factories to create > > > pre-fab templates from regular Zope objects as well as from > > > ZClasses. That's the lever. > > > > > > http://www.zope.org/Members/michel/ZB/CustomZopeObjects.dtml > > > > > > > > >>> In "Programming Data with Tabula" > > > > > > Tabula became ZTables, which is the genetic predecessor of ZCatalog. > > > > > > > > Summary: Quickstart Really Needs to Get Updated > > > > > > Quickstart Really Needs to Get Axed. > > > > > > -Michel > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Zope maillist - Zope(a)zope.org > > > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope > > > ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** > > > (Related lists - > > > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce > > > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev ) > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Zope maillist - Zope(a)zope.org > > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope > > ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** > > (Related lists - > > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce > > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev ) > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Zope maillist - Zope(a)zope.org > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope > ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** > (Related lists - > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev ) > > _______________________________________________ > Zope maillist - Zope(a)zope.org > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope > ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** > (Related lists - > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce > http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev ) >

1 0

How do you track if somebody leaves your site..?
by StoonsDesign 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

Can somebody tell me how to track if someone "leaves" the Zopeserver..? I am going to use it for some login-feature.... Stoons, WebMaster @ 3D Festival http://www.3dfestival.com (Yes, that was made using Zope!)

5 5

Problems with DTML-IN patch!!!
by Schmidt, Allen J. 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

My recent posts today uncovered problems with the DTML-IN patch being passed around. 'next-sequence-start-number' does not appear to be working. Even using a generic ZSQL method and a generic Z Search Interface that produces a result set greater than the SIZE provided. Searches that produced less worked fine. Anything over the SIZE blows up with a KeyError on the above variable. We replaced the files with those from the stable 2.3.0 and restarted Zope and all the methods worked as before. Allen

2 1

Re: [Zope] Z SQL Method multiple column update
by Dieter Maurer 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

Donald Braman writes: > I'm setting up a data entry/data update form for legal cases. Each case has > a few documents associated with it. The person entering data enters the > number of documents, a script creates necessary records, then presents them > with a screen that should look a bit like this, with every datum being > updateable: > > doc |title |source | pages | ... > +----+----------------+------------+---------+ > | 01 |title of doc 1 |doc1 source | # of pgs| ... > +----+----------------+------------+---------+ > | 02 |title of doc 2 |doc2 source | # of pgs| ... > +----+----------------+------------+---------+ > | 03 |title of doc 3 |doc3 source | # of pgs| ... > +----+----------------+------------+---------+ > ....etc. > > This is so they can enter data about many documents on a single screen. I'm > not sure how to bind multiple rows/records to a single Z SQL Method. Any > suggestions? The magic lies in the ":records" form variable suffix. You can look at the ZPublisher section in URL:http://www.dieter.handshake.de/pyprojects/zope/book/chap3.html to find out more. Alternatively, there is a HowTo on FormVariable suffixes on Zope.org. Finally, a search in the (searchable) list archive will show you various posts about this question (very recently). Dieter

2 1

Quickstart needs updating!
by Donald Braman 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

It's true that there is not a clear message as to where a newbie should start to learn Zope. The Zope home page has a "Learn Zope" section. When you click on More..., though, you don't find a tutorial, but a kind of "about page". If you are really smart (or lucky), you'll then click on the Zope Book link and read it cover to cover, doing all the exercises. However, it would be good to have this be explicitly stated as generically the best way to learn about Zope for those who are starting fresh. I propose a tweak to the layout for the zope.org home page, breaking out "about Zope" and "Learning Zope". Learning Zope would contain, of course, links to various introductory documents and how-tos. However, it would state up front what a newbie who wants to learn Zope should do. It might also have separate sections for non-programmers, people with programming experience, real wizards, etc. Obviously people can learn however they want, but being told "If in doubt, do/read this, then do/read this, etc." is helpful to newbies who are generally "in doubt" about what to do. BTW, I think Zope Newbies could do the same. A "Learn Zope" link or area on the top page there be very nice. -Don [Zope] Quickstart needs updating! Michel Pelletier michel(a)digicool.com Thu, 1 Mar 2001 11:31:47 -0800 (PST) On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Joel Burton wrote: > On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Jeff Sasmor wrote: > > > > >>>In The Almighty Lever > > "An exiting new development being worked on for Zope is The Lever... " > > > > (I have been working with Zope for well over a year and > > still don't know what THIS is....) > > Yeeps. Never heard of it. "The Lever" is the same thing as a ZClass factory. In fact, the last chapter of the Zope book explains how you can use factories to create pre-fab templates from regular Zope objects as well as from ZClasses. That's the lever. http://www.zope.org/Members/michel/ZB/CustomZopeObjects.dtml > > >>> In "Programming Data with Tabula" Tabula became ZTables, which is the genetic predecessor of ZCatalog. > > Summary: Quickstart Really Needs to Get Updated Quickstart Really Needs to Get Axed. -Michel

3 2

DTML Example In Zope Book
by Dave 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

As a Zope newbie, I attempted to run the little DTML Method example in the Zope book (Chap 3 - Basic Objects). This involves creating 2 DTML Methods and a Python script to input some numbers and return compounding interest data. I basically copy-pasted the code from the book into the needed methods and script, but when I run it, I continually get a NameError (Zope cannot find a var with this name) on the first variable that the script comes to when running. For example, if I access the page as in the example, I get a NameError on "interest_rate". If I remove this from the picture (remove the "interest_rate" reference from the calculateCompoundingInterest script and then access the form again, I will get a NameError on the next variable it runs into - this time "periods." I have some familiarity with Perl, but have not used Python scripting, so I have no idea where to start on troubleshooting this. But it appears to not be a script problem, but rather that the variable assignments made in the form thru the first DTML Method are not being passed to the script. Is there a syntax change that needs to be made for a newer Zope? As I said, I basically copy and pasted the code from the example since I am just beginning to learn the DTML calls. I have Zope 2.3.0 installed on a Win32 platform. Thanks for any assistance!! - Dave

2 1

Re: [Zope] Overlap
by Dieter Maurer 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

Ron Baum writes: > I am using dtml-in's batch features and noticed that I am getting an overlap of > the last item to the top of the next batch. I changed the overlap attribute to > 0 and I still get the overlap. Is there anything else that I need to do to make > this work? I expect this is a design bug in in's batching. The "start" attribute is "1" based, i.e. if you say "start=1" the batch starts with the first element. However, "next-sequence-start-index" is "0" based. This implies, if you use "query_start=&dtml-next-sequence-start-index;" the next batch will start with the last element from the current batch. You can get rid of this by using query_start=<dtml-var "_['next-sequence-start-index'] + 1"> Of course, I think the need to do it in this weird way is stupid. "in" should define "next-sequence-start-number" (which would be "1" based)! Dieter

1 0

Quickstart needs updating!
by Jeff Sasmor 01 Mar '01

01 Mar '01

Fellow Zopistas: Just a note (although this begins to sound like a rant as I read it back, sorry!) to mention how surprised I was that even given the revamped Zope look n feel in 2.3.x, the "Quickstart" seems to still need a lot of updating! Isn't it likely that the first thing a newbie would do is read this and get really confused? There are a plethora of new concepts and especially new terms that have no definitions almost anywhere without a lot of looking around. Now anyone who has used Zope for a while and/or is familiar with the history of product development at DC will know some of this stuff, but it just adds to the confusion for new users. Some examples: >>>In App development/External Methods: "Pluggable brains" (sounds cool but daunting) >>>In The Almighty Lever "An exiting new development being worked on for Zope is The Lever... " (I have been working with Zope for well over a year and still don't know what THIS is....) "Tabula or Aqueduct " (You have to dig deep to figure out what these are) >>>In Adding Object Behavior to Relational Data " With Zope and Aqueduct " "Aqueduct Database Methods" >>> In "Programming Data with Tabula" This talks some more about Aqueduct and Tabula. Again, Tabula is defined exactly nowhere, as a matter of fact, if you search for Tabula on Zope.org all you get is a footnote on this page. http://www.zope.org/Documentation/Guides/ZSQL-HTML/ZSQL.1.5.5.html Aqueduct isn't mentioned too much on Zope.org either: just in these two places, and they don't help much... http://www.zope.org/Products/DA/ZODBCDA/CHANGES.txt http://www.zope.org/Members/paul/BusinessDecision >>>In "Dropin Objects" Here we see mention of the "Aqueduct line of products" ..... nuff said on this one. And Confera: this could be changed to something newer, I was under the impression that Confera was sort of obsolete. >>>In "High Performance" and "Multi-Platform" and "SQL and HTML in Harmony" and "Multiple Data Sources" and "Multi-tiered" and "Publish Databases" More mentions of Aqueduct. "Multi-tiered" and "Databases" each has a figure that shows a block called Principia. Now you can find stuff about this on Zope.org, but it's scantly explained for such a key part of the system. And so on. Summary: Quickstart Really Needs to Get Updated Jeff Sasmor jeff(a)sasmor.com Check out http://www.naggle.com/

3 2