September 2002 - Zope

We're being censored! Kinda. (Was: RE: Offensive Email - RE: [Zope] Some basic questions on Zope performance/scalability)
by Charlie Reiman 10 Sep '02

10 Sep '02

I just sent that little joke about Fred being Jane and I got this creepy response from some over-protective server in New Zealand. > -----Original Message----- > From: fw_admin(a)airnz.co.nz [mailto:fw_admin@airnz.co.nz] > Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 9:15 AM > To: creiman(a)kefta.com > Subject: Offensive Email - RE: [Zope] Some basic questions on Zope > performance/scalability > > > This message has not been delivered. It potentially contains one > or more words that could be considered offensive. Please request > the sender to resend without any potentially offensive words. > > Message: B00050725b.00000001.mml > From: creiman(a)kefta.com > To: mike.stevenson(a)airnz.co.nz > Subject: RE: [Zope] Some basic questions on Zope > performance/scalability > > If you feel this is in error, please contact the Service Desk > (+64 9 3065222) Ext 65222 to organise its release. > I hardly think I've sent any offensive email to the list. Off-topic and irrelevant, sure, but not offensive. Most interesting is that it doesn't send you the offensive email or note what the offensive words are. After studying my email, I think it is triggering on the word 'blow' in 'joeblow', though it might as well be triggering on 'Internet'. Obviously, this block is on Mike's email, not the list's so it's not that heinous. I find it chilling but on the plus side, Mike's delicate sensibilities will be protected.

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mysterious periodic crashes
by Matthew T. Bell 10 Sep '02

10 Sep '02

Hi -- I have been having a problem where a Zope server I am running periodically (as in every couple days) crashes whenever a user tries to access an external method. Initially it returns the error "(external method) file does not exist)", and then all the Zope programs terminate, making the website inaccessible. Restarting seems to solve the problem. Does anyone know what might be causing this and how I could prevent it from occurring? Thanks, Matthew Bell Graduate Student University of Pittsburgh

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ZBabel install problem
by AM 10 Sep '02

10 Sep '02

Hi, I downloaded and installed ZBabel ver 2.0 beta 2 and restarted Zope. I got an error : ImportError: canot import name get_request which is caused by the following lines in ZBabelObject.py and __init__.py : from Globals import get_request Now I dont know why the call is necessary or otherwise, but I would like to know how to get around this problem? The problem is that get_request is also called twice in the source, so I cant just go around messing in the code without spending a lot of time. If anybody has encountered the problem and fixed it, any pointers as to how to fix this would be great. My config: Zope 2.5.1 on RH 7.2 with Python 2.1.2 TIA AM -- ================================================================== Aseem Mohanty Neurobehavioral Systems Inc, 828 San Pablo Ave, Albany, CA 94706 (R) 510 7696011 (M) 510 3014871 (O) 510 5279231 ================================================================== "I saw `cout' being shifted "Hello world" times to the left and stopped right there!!" -- Steve Gonedes ==================================================================

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XML-RPC and binary data
by Kyler Laird 10 Sep '02

10 Sep '02

[I'm copying this to the Zope list so that someone there will be sure to correct any gross mistakes I make.] Transfering binary data through XML-RPC does not seem to be the problem that you described. xmlrpclib handles it fine. Zope receives it fine. It's just unusable once it gets to Zope. As a test, I created a script that made a Binary object from a simple image foo = xmlrpclib.Binary(img.read()) and then called a test script on my Zope server. result = Zopesvr.test.xmlrpc(foo) This worked o.k. When I printed the string rendition of what the script received, I got <xmlrpclib.Binary instance at 0x98420b4> Looks good, no? This is much better than we'd thought; there is no need to manually base64 encode it on the client. However...it turns out that the Binary class in Zope's xmlrpclib product is quite a kludge. # # binary data wrapper (NOTE: this is an extension to Userland's # XML-RPC protocol! only for use with compatible servers!) class Binary: def __init__(self, data=None): self.data = data def decode(self, data): import base64 self.data = base64.decodestring(data) def encode(self, out): import base64, StringIO out.write("<value><base64>\n") base64.encode(StringIO.StringIO(self.data), out) out.write("</base64></value>\n") The first thing to notice is that we don't know what type of data is in a Binary object. You just initialize it with some data and then you either encode() or decode() it. If it was initialized with encoded data and you encode() it or it was initialized with decoded data and you decode() it, you'll probably not get what you expected. The more important deficiency in this class is that even if you do figure out what kind of data is in there, there's no way for you (as a normal user) to get at it. Both decode() and encode() want to stuff their results in a file object. I do not know of any way you can get one in Zope. It does not matter though - you are not allowed to access them anyway. So...you're screwed. You can't touch the data. (No, you can't just use a Binary object with manage_addFile.) The quick and dirty solution is to add import AccessControl AccessControl.allow_class(Binary) to xmlrpclib.py. Then you can get straight at the "data" of the Binary object. (I just did this and passed it to manage_addImage(). It worked fine. The data was already decoded.) Ideally, you'd add some sane public methods to the Binary class. Perhaps "encoded()" and "decoded()" would be a place to start. They could return either strings or StringIO objects. Sorry I don't have a better solution, but it looks like you're probably going to have to patch Zope if you don't want to give up on XML-RPC and just use HTTP POST. I appreciate and share your desire to use XML-RPC with Zope, but until we get Binary straightened out in Zope and basic authentication added in Python, it just takes too many kludges to recommend. --kyler

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ZPT & passing around options...
by Edward Muller 10 Sep '02

10 Sep '02

Hello All... I have a problem that I haven't found a 'good' solution for. I use what I cann RPZN (Reverse Polish Zope Notation) when developing sites. RPZN is where you use one master template index_html in the root of your zope install. Thist master index_html file provides the layout for the entire site and includes (in my case) at least one reference like this: <div tal:content="structure here/content" class="content"> Content </div> This way each folder you create needs to only have a 'content' object (either a file, DTML Method or Document), which includes only the content for that folder. This makes adding to the site really easy. Want more content, add a folder, create a 'content' object and fill it in. The entire site look'n'feel is maintained in one place and that's /index_html. This has worked great for some time, until now. :-( Because of my design, in a Python script I need to call something like: return container.content(variable1="sometxt", var2=["text1","text2"]) This ends up calling the local content, without the surrounding site look'n'feel, <html> tags ... and the rest ... which is bad ... And ... calling index_html like so: return container.index_html(variable1="sometxt", var2=["text1","text2"]) (line may be wrapped) works fine wrt the site loook'n'feel and structure and all ... but the variables I pass into index_html get passed to the local content object, which is what I need to do. Anyone know how to do this? I spent some time looking around and I couldn't find an answer. Help! Thanks in advance ... I'd be happy to clarify anything above if it helps. --EAM

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RE: [Zope] Users cannot acces sites
by Roel Van den Bergh 10 Sep '02

10 Sep '02

Yes CMF 1.2 I tried to install CMF 1.3 on the new Zope but importing CMF-sites.zexp failed so I copied all added Products from old Zope to new Zope > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- > Van: Ausum Studio [mailto:ausum_studio@hotmail.com] > Verzonden: dinsdag 10 september 2002 14:44 > Aan: roel(a)planetinterior.com > Onderwerp: Re: [Zope] Users cannot acces sites > > Is you current CMF of the same version as your existing CMF sites? > > Ausum > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Roel Van den Bergh" <roel(a)planetinterior.com> > To: "Zope Org" <zope(a)zope.org> > Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 7:02 AM > Subject: [Zope] Users cannot acces sites > > > > Resume: > > we had a Dell PowerApp 120 running RH 7.0, Apache 1.3.x, Zope 2.5.0 > binairy > > release upgraded to 2.5.1 > > we upgraded the machine to RH 7.3 with ext3, Apache 1.3.23 > > build python 2.1.3 from source rpm with '%define config_tkinter 0' > > build zope 2.5.1 from source (NOT rpm) > > exported CMF-sites from old Zope, imported them in new Zope to avoid 2GB > > Data.fs size limit (tested succesfully :-) > > added rewrite rules to apache: > > RewriteEngine On > > RewriteRule ^/(.*) > > http://127.0.0.1:8080/VirtualHostBase/http/%{HTTP_HOST}:80/$1 [L,P] > > started all. > > > > Now the following happens: > > logging into the ZMI as manager on port 8080 : OK > > logging into the ZMI as manager on port 80 : OK > > logging into CMF site as a user on port 8080 : OK > > logging into CMF site as a user on port 80 : redirection to login page > > > > What did we do wrong?

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Some basic questions on Zope performance/scalability
by Wankyu Choi 10 Sep '02

10 Sep '02

Hi all, First, I apologize for posting this. I'm sure the topic has been discussed time and again, but I couldn't find a definite answer to my queries: 1. I made a custom user folder using MySQL as a storage backend. But I always feel wary about that User Folder method getUsers(). I have about 300,000 users in a MySQL db table. Is this method really meant to return that many users? Or the fundamental design of a Zope User Folder is intended for a small group of users? 2. Again, I have a 300,000-strong user base. Would it be wise to let them create a home folder and start adding things of their own? Could ZODB's FileStorage model take that much data without any problems or without severe perfomance penalty? I'm trying to pull out huge data objects as external files (as I did with NeoBoard's attachments), but I guess there's a limit to that approach too (and it's seemingly stupid not to use ZODB for all the benefits it offers). Simply put, say you already have 300,000 users with tons of data for each of them and you want to put them and their data somewhere in and/or outside of Zope. What would you do? Thanks in advance. Best Regards, Wankyu Choi

4 4

returning related objects
by VanL 10 Sep '02

10 Sep '02

Hello, I have some objects stored in the ZODB that I am accessing via a ZCatalog query. The problem is that I sometimes don't want the exact results of a search, but an item that is related to it via the ZODB tree. For example, say I have the following hierarchy (everything is a folderish object): Orchards/ Hill Orchard/ Manager Fields/ North_Field/ AppleTypes/ McIntosh Golden Delicious South_Field/ AppleTypes/ Red Delicious East_Field/ AppleTypes/ McIntosh Fuji Valley Orchard/ Manager Fields/ North_Field/ AppleTypes/ Golden Delicious South_Field/ AppleTypes/ Granny I want to do queries like: "Who are the managers that look over Golden Delicious Fields?" "What kinds of apples are grown in the Valley Orchard?" Currently, I am trying to do a zcatalog query for the known item (say, the Orchard) and then run up or down the acquisition chain to retrieve the unknown, but related quantity. Is there an easier way to do this? One of the things that I like about Zope is the ability to store objects in their natural hierarchies. Can I use that to get information about objects that are related to my current object? Thanks, VanL

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Packing database when quote is running out ...
by Heimo Laukkanen 10 Sep '02

10 Sep '02

Hi, I just stumbled into a situation where I noticed that our Data.fs had grown into huge blob and space was running out of that drive. I first tried to pack normally, but that did not work since packing from control panel allways tried to create a backup of the packed database. And there was not enough space left. My saviour was Chris McDonough whose script I found in one email - on how to pack database out of Zope. So I shutdown Zope for a while and packed the database - moved the Data.fs.old into some other drive and continued to live my life happy. Script in this email: http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Message/540208 Lesson learned: Put packing the database into cron ,-) -- Heimo Laukkanen Oy Fountain Park Ltd Hämeentie 153 B, 00560 Helsinki, Finland tel. +358 9 777 68 161, gsm +358 40 759 1110, fax +358 9 777 68 100 http://www.fountainpark.org

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How big will the export be? Content size * 10 ?
by Heimo Laukkanen 10 Sep '02

10 Sep '02

I just mounted Zope with davFS ( WebDAV ) to my laptop and started going through a couple of services. One thing I noticed was that if I tried to count the size of the service with du -hs it produced a filesize that was roughly 10 smaller than the export of the actual service. Sizes were about 7 megabytes and 62 megabytes. My question is that is there any simple rule - of how big an export of a service will be, if we know how approx. the size of the content that has been uploaded into Zope. -- Heimo Laukkanen Oy Fountain Park Ltd Hämeentie 153 B, 00560 Helsinki, Finland tel. +358 9 777 68 161, gsm +358 40 759 1110, fax +358 9 777 68 100 http://www.fountainpark.org

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