March 2001 - Zope - Zope lists

LoginManager newbie question
by Ludwig Weiss 23 Mar '01

23 Mar '01

Hi there, i got the loginmanager to run, but i would like to have a small login dialog on the frontpage, wich should consult the LoginManager to process the request. I cannot trigger the login process from outside the Manager. /folderX index_html (with login form) acl_users any ideas??? thanks in advance Ludwig

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two questions
by Oliver Vecernik 23 Mar '01

23 Mar '01

Hi, I'm experimenting with Zope to deal with my new homepage. I've got two questions, maybe someone can help me. 1. Relative URL's I've got the following piece of code: <ul> <dtml-in expr="objectValues('Folder')" sort=sort_order> <li><a class="sidemenu" href="&dtml-absolute_url;"><dtml-var title_or_id></a><br></li> </dtml-in> </ul> I don't want an absolute_url but a relative url, but couldn't find any list in doc which variables are available. Can anyone give me a clue or point me the doc where to find it? 2. Static copy When I'm done with the development of my homepage I'd like to copy my pages to my ISP, but unfortenately he doesn't provide Zope. I don't need forms and my data rarely changes so I had the idea to make a static copy. I tried wget but had the following problem: if there are more links to another page on the same page (eg. navbar on top, and a sidebar pointing to the same item) I get two copies of the whole tree and even worse, with my navbar on top of the pages wget recursively tries to copy my pages forever. Has anybody a better idea? Oliver

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Problem with passing <input type=hidden value='<dtml-var nbMenu>' name=nbMenu> from an external Method
by servel yannick 23 Mar '01

23 Mar '01

Hi all, Source code of SaveMenu.html <dtml-var "SaveMenu(REQUEST=REQUEST)"> Source code of the external method SaveMenu def SaveMenu(self, REQUEST=None): s="" i = 1 s = s +"<input type=hidden value='<dtml-var nbMenu>' name=nbMenu>" return s And here is the code returned when SaveMenu is executed: <input type=hidden value='<dtml-var nbMenu>' name=nbMenu> instead of value='<dtml-var nbMenu>' I should have value=(an integer) Is there an alternative solution to fix that problem? Many Thanks, Yannick

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feature suggestion (aliases)
by tom smith 23 Mar '01

23 Mar '01

hi all This would be really really useful. An object type which just contained a reference to another object elsewhere in the system. It's main view would be, er, view (rather than edit) . It would behave like a Mac's alias or (I think) like a unix softlink. It's only purpose would be to make navigation of the management screens easier and quicker. It's only *other* purpose would be to avoid duplicating code that doesn't fit into the hierarchy. Of it's three purposes... cheers tom -- tom smith | tom(a)othermedia.com http://www.othermedia.com/blog tel 020 8541 5355 | fax 020 8541 5507 11 penrhyn road, kingston-upon-thames, london KT1 2BZ

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Re: [Zope] Zope security management
by Dario Lopez-K�sten 23 Mar '01

23 Mar '01

[Sorry - may mailer cheated on my. Once more ] This is not in Zope yet, I am working on making it so Here's how I do it in PLSQL: Two steps: 1) the form action element calls the login method using https:// <form method="post" action="https://...../mts2.login"> This is not necessary however, you could still use <form method="post" action="mts2.login"> because 2) The login method checks to see if it is called from a valid port. This is the first statement in the method (or procedure as it is called in plsql-ish): begin -- check if we are secure if not wutl.is_ssl then raise ssl_not_used; end if; Here is the is_ssl procedure: function is_ssl return boolean is current_port varchar2(5); begin -- is_ssl returns true if the port number of the call is from valid ports -- SSL uses 443 as standard -- use cgi environment variable: SERVER_PORT = 443 current_port := owa_util.get_cgi_env('SERVER_PORT'); if NVL(to_number(current_port), 0) in (443) then return true; end if; return false; -- if null or not eq SSL_PORT end; Now in Zope we have access to more info than I have with the PLSQL WebToolikit. Besides using the Server Port, I could also look att the URL, the Server URL and some more elements in the REQUEST object, and whatch for URL:s that begin with "https:". What I am not sure about is how this would work with Apache running as a Proxy. Anyway; this works for me in the PLSQL things I run, and makes sure that the requests I accpet in my programs are used only with SSL in known ports. This of course assumes knowledge that I actually run SSL on the specified ports. /dario ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Welch" <bill(a)carbonecho.com> To: <zope(a)zope.org> Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 8:16 PM Subject: Re: [Zope] Zope security management > Please share with us how you make sure that the login form can only be > used over SSL. > > Bill. >

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Virtual Hosting configuration for Zope
by Alan Capesius 23 Mar '01

23 Mar '01

I've put together the following solutions for virtual hosting of domains and I'm looking for some feedback from the list. The solution uses TinyTable, Virtual Host Monster and AccessRule and a DTML method to process all inbound requests by domain name similar to the way in which SiteRoot script things. The best part is that once set, the AccessRule does not need to be modified to add new hosts. Host to folder mapping is performed via entries in the TinyTable, the rest of the configuration is static. I would think it would be simple to implement something like this as a product, though it is beyond my current skill set. I'd like to enhance it a bit further so that it can handle hostnames in addition to just domain names. I'd also be happy to hear any feedback on this. Tested with Zope 2.3.0 and TinyTable 0-8-2. Virtual Host Monster and AccessRule support are built into 2.3.0 Here it is: Create a folder in Root called VHosts Inside VHosts create a folder for each Virtual host Inside each new Virtual host's folder , create a Virtual Host Monster called VHM Inside VHosts, create a TinyTable called HostsTable Give the Tiny Table the following columns : domain, folder Create records for domain to folder mapping as shown here: "domain1.com", "Folder1" "domain2.com", "Folder2" Where the domain names are the virtual names for your server and the folder names are the folders created inside VHosts. Entries are CASE SENSITIVE and MUST match the folder names created in the earlier step. Enter all domains in lower case. Inside VHosts create the following DTML Method: Name: gethostfolder <dtml-in "VHosts.HostsTable(domainname)"> <dtml-return folder> <dtml-else> <dtml-return "'NULL'"> </dtml-in> In the Root, create a DTML called AccessRule AccessRule in Root Folder =================== <dtml-let hostname="_.string.split(_.string.lower(_.string.split(HTTP_HOST, ':')[0]),'.')[-2:]" domainname="hostname[0] + '.' + hostname[1]" vhmcode="VHosts.gethostfolder(_.None, _, host=domainname)"> <dtml-if "vhmcode<>'NULL'"> <dtml-if "_.string.split(_.string.lower(PATH_INFO), '/')[-1:]==['manage'] or _.string.split(_.string.lower(PATH_INFO), '/')[-1:]==['manage_main'] or _.string.split(_.string.lower(PATH_INFO), '/')[-1:]==['manage_workspace'] "> <dtml-if "TraversalRequestNameStack[-2:]<>[vhmcode,'VHosts']"> <dtml-call "REQUEST['TraversalRequestNameStack'].extend([vhmcode, 'VHosts'])"> </dtml-if> <dtml-else> <dtml-call "REQUEST['TraversalRequestNameStack'].extend(['VHM', vhmcode, 'VHosts'])"> </dtml-if> </dtml-if> </dtml-let> It should look like this: Root- AccessRule VHosts- HostsTable gethostfolder Folder1- VHM index_html Folder2- VHM index_html Security Settings: gethostfolder method: no anonymous access, proxy as manager, manager has full rights. HostsTable: No anonymous access, manager full rights AccessRule: Proxy as manager Now, to enable the system, Use the Root folder's Add->SetAccessRule option and enter "AccessRule" (without quotes) and click Set. Requests for domain1 will be drawn from Folder1, 2 from 2 etc.. Managent of the virtual domain will show only the VHosts folder contents for the selected site. Management of the root site will show the root. Access to unsupported domains will fall back to root. (perhaps to be a redirect to a 404 page in the future) Display the mappings with /VHosts/HostsTable or via the management interface. Use http://hostname/_SUPPRESS_ACCESSRULE/manage to deactivate the AccessRule if you have any problems accessing the system. All feedback welcome. To the list please. Alan Capesius, MCSE Tech World, Inc. http://twsite.bizland.com/zopetips.htm

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DTML-tree and frames.
by Rubinstein Fredrik 23 Mar '01

23 Mar '01

Hi there. I want to create an website on which I split the screen with a narrow left side in which there will be an dtml-tree function and a wide right side. When a user clicks on a expandeed leave on the left side I want to display information on the the wide right side. However it seems that I can not get the frames stuff to work. Are there any suggestions or examples out there ? With kind regards. Fred PS. Still an Zope Newbie

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Thoughts on <dtml-in ...> and related matters
by The Famous Brett Watson 23 Mar '01

23 Mar '01

I'm relatively new to Zope, and so unfamiliar with all the issues that this might raise, but here are my thoughts on the dtml-in "sequence-item" issue. It seems that what we have here is a specific instance of a general problem: dtml variables which aren't readily accessible in Python because they use identifiers that aren't valid in Python. In the first instance I would suggest a policy of making built-in dtml names Python-compatible. There seems to be a lack of consistency in the naming conventions which would benefit from this anyhow. Yes it's true that renaming any variable like this can impact on already-written programs, but that's true of any change to the namespace. I've also noted that there is a large amount of confusion amongst Zope newbies when it comes to the differences between the dtml any Python namespaces -- understandably so. Even if you can understand what a namespace is, what a context is, that there is a difference between Python and DTML in terms of these concepts, and how acquisition works in general, it's still damn hard to figure out exactly what identifiers are valid and associated with what object in these circumstances. If anyone has a good tutorial on the matter, please point me to it. As someone who is familiar with programming language theory but new to Zope, I often find myself asking "WTF is in my namespace now?" And there seems to be a high number of questions relating to how to fetch dtml-accessable objects in Python. A smoothing out of these differences would be beneficial to all, I think. Finally, with regards to the idea of tying sequence-item and related variables to other names (such as foo-item, bar-item, etc), I would anticipate this being done by creating a loop control variable with properties. For example, one could have the following. <dtml-in mylist using="foo"> Key: <dtml-var foo.key>; value: <dtml-var foo.item> </dtml-in> This could be introduced as a *new* syntax for the dtml-in tag, such that omitting the "using" attribute causes the old sequence-* suite of variables to be used. This should obviate any issues with namespace pollution: the programmer declares the new variable (and thus namespace) to populate. Presumably the variable can also be declared in a way that makes it directly-accessable in Python, too. Like I say, I'm not familiar enough with Zope to know if all this is viable, but it's the kind of behaviour that I'd go looking for if I thought it existed. Regards, TFBW

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Re: [Zope] Zope security management
by Karl Anderson 23 Mar '01

23 Mar '01

"Phil Harris" <phil.harris(a)zope.co.uk> writes: > I agree with the fact that why bother with MD5 when SSL is available, > however not everyone using Zope has that capability available to them. Everybody who uses one of the free secure Apache servers has SSL available to them; is this not the case for other servers that Zope can run behind? > For instance, I've recently seen a posting on slashdot.org where some people > are questioning the pricing of SSL certificates, these people are living in > Asia where the price of certificates equates to a few months salary. That Slashdot discussion unsurprisingly only said half of the story. SSL certs are free; becoming your own certificate authority and signing your own certificates is free, and even documented by mod_ssl. I have a personal zope site that protects BasicAuth with SSL, and I didn't pay for any bits. The only reason to pay for a CA to sign your cert is to have that CA vouch that the cert is yours; Netscape accepts those certs without a dialog box. There's probably other advangates, like insurance, as well, I dunno. But thats what the official CAs provide; it's not Zope's job. This doesn't address the original problem - if you allow nonsecure authorization to a page, eventually someone will forget to access it via SSL and will send the password across in the clear. That's a valid point. Personally, I'm paranoid that my browser or proxy will send my credentials without being asked for, which IIRC they are allowed to do; so once I send credentials to my site, I always use SSL for other URLs. This is annoying, but wouldn't client certificates solve this problem? -- Karl Anderson karl(a)digicool.com

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RFC: eks -- extended kde2-soho-server and zope-soho-server
by Olaf Zanger 23 Mar '01

23 Mar '01

hi there, the preface: this RFC is written with the great work of the open-source-community as a whole as well as the overwhelming efforts of the single participant in mind. what is more, these ideas base on the very fact that this community with its unique development model can create what was unthinkable only few years ago. the idea grew basing on the linux-(kernel)-slogen "world domination". the name: "eks -- enhanced kde2-soho-server" (eks: as in german for drinking the whole glas of beer at once and derived from "exchange" which eks shall survive :-). the background: one of the major oportunities of open source (os) is the extra value that is created by combining several different os projects and integrating it into a "added value product". the value of integration is one of the good reasons why home-servers (adomo), digital video recordors (tivo) and other gadgets are based more and more on linux. integration -- the idea: call the kde2 desktop ready for prime time, add the ideas of yahoo-services (calendar, notes, addressbook, email), think .NET and "hailstorm" and you end up with knowing that "desktop" is now but tomorrow is integrated and mobile computing. lets take the upper buzzwords and available os-technologies to cook up a recipe. the ingredients: kde2, koffice, kpilot, python-scripting, zope/php/perl, mysql/pgsql, soap (in gnome known under soup by ximian), suse/mandrake and the os-wap-server. extend some current developments and come up with some new things. with eks kde2 data are stored in a os-database. the typical kde2 app may be python scriptable. koffice saves through a kio-slave in a database-file-system. zope/php/perl makes all this stuff accessable by internet/intranet and mobile-phone through www/wap. the picture: 1. kde2 bases on data in files for kmail, kab, kalender and all the others. this is great stuff for a single desktop. in a network (in the living room, small office, home office) these data can be moved to the server easily using smb or nfs. it is not so easy to keep pdas and laptops in sync. 2. now "kde2-soho-server" functionality gets added to the server. a "soho-application-server" might be wanted. 3. to allow a higher degree of integration of kde2 data (e.g. specific addressbook entries and grouping to be used in kugar, rekall, kapital, ...), data and files may move into a mysql/pgsql database of the added "kde2-soho-server". since soho has little money this best happens automatically. 4. the zope/perl/php based "soho-application-server" provides base functionality of the main programs (though functionally slower and with less features) to use all the data through a browser in the intranet and internet without the need of kde2 beeing installed on a specific device. now all company or household data is accessible through kde2 locally, the web worldwide, wap and embedded qt mobile. the added value: single click "kde2-soho-server" setup. fast migration from workstation-centric data to mobile-network data. powerfull base for further business logic development with scripting language (e.g. python) and internet data-access. huge extra market for kde2 deployment. killer application for kde2-desktop. the work: there is heaps, but thinking of at least five different image viewers and comparable situation in mp3 players there might be the one or the other programmer beeing happy to jump on the wagon. 1. projects to be started: define location for content (pic-, movie-library, database name and structure), krystal (graphical editor for kugar xml files). 2. in early stages: kproject, mymap, gud (zope-http-organizer), sql-ledger (perl-http-cash) 3. beta: rekall, kde-db, kapital, pgp integration, karm-kapital-korganizer integration 4. more features: kapital (soho-features [as in quickbooks], database adapter) 5. (kio-)database access: afaik none of the current koffice components does support database sources. 6. www-content: make Zope GUD (Grand Unified Desktop) and Zope CMF (Content Management Framework) compatible to the datastructures and file-formats (xml) of kde2 now in the databases. Zope basic rendering of kword, killustrator, kpresenter, ... xml data. 7. multimedia: any os-streaming of content to www-terminals or mobile phones around? 8. sync: sync-ml support throughout kde2 (with the database in mind :-) 9. scripting: python support throughout kde2. 10. development: support of the noted capabilities through kdevelop, kde-studio, blackadder (mainly the scripting), kde2-python language bindings?. 11. other issues: don't know anything about wap server. the setup: suse and mandrake would have additional buttons called "kde2-soho-server" and "soho-application-server". the first part would ask for all the valid information to set everything up in the first place. the second would add access through browser-only devices intranet/internet. the vision (a more than normal office day for the envisioned kde-lady): 1. she gets a email of a new client and adds the vcard to the company database by single mouseclick. after approval of client data by the assistant the client gets its password by crypted email. 2. amazed about the fast setup he orders some products in the online shop. 3. kapital already provides the address out of the database. the billing for the client is approved by sales staff. a bill is generated through kugar. a version is faxed through hylafax, one is printed for the backup record and one is sent by encrypted email. 4. after a long day finally at home kde-lady notices, that she does not have the mobile number of this cute new client. but she doesn't want to miss his invitation to this slick soiree at a new gallery. 5. so she accesses the company addresses through the soho-application-server to get the mobile number of the client. btw she figures from the timetracker that she has more than enough overtime to add some private time to the calendar for tomorrow morning. 6. in a integrated internet service she finds easily the address of the gallery. 7. after a great evening the morning is hard. but at work she receives a voice mail. kde2 plays the stream. the accountant of the cute client really appreaciated the fast billing. this way the expense can be part of this financial year :-). the disclaimer: 1. in case any ideas are already beeing realised or have been realised by os please notify me. why don't you tell the world what has to be done to make those two buttons appear in the distros :-). 2. this was hacked together at 1:30am. there was no major effort for spell checking and checking project names. 3. work: since i build up a own company currently i can't put software-development-effort into the eks. if wanted, i may be able to push the idea further for more details. i find it most interesting to fill the missing links between the great running projects of the developer crowds (like towing with zope/php and kde2/gnome in a common direction for added value). what do you guys think about putting such a topic to dot.kde.org? i read the latest outcry on the development list and wonder if visions that long are supposed to be on the development list or if there is an other place for that? as noted comments are requested and very much appreciated. Olaf M. Zanger the author: grew up with atari, mac and win. he worked in project management, windows soho-network administration and www-content. now he prefers kde2. currently he is developing internet application services for renewable energy systems. until now he has a second computer close by running the legacy windows stuff and to figure every day that a crashing kde2 app is better than a crashed win-system. -- Olaf Marc Zanger mailto:olaf.zanger@gmx.net

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