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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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ZCatalog and Zsearch Interface.
by Srinath Mantripragada 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Hi, I need to know how does the search works. The index of Catalog is made based in a pythonMethod that returns an concatenated text with the contents of a lot of fields I made an external method in python that do the search and sort the entire result. It´s an priorized sort, that i need to priorize the keywords, so the results that have the searched text in the keywords list will be showed first. I made the sort by dividing the resuilts in two secondaries lists, one that contains the results with searched text in the keywords and the another that does not. finaly I return the two lists concatenated. I need to know if there is a better way to do the priorized search in many fields and if the solution that I made will "destroy" the server´s memory and/or cpu. If possible, i want to know how the ZsearchInterface works internally.. Thanks.. Srinath M.

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Re: [Zope] Problem with 2.2.4b1
by Alastair Burt 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Menard.Jean-Francois(a)hydro.qc.ca writes: > I installed 2.2.4b1 over 2.2.3, and everything seems to work fine, but, when > I IE5.5 to manage my sites, I loose some icons and graphics (not all!). > But, if I clear my cache, The icons reappears, but only for a while! Am I > the only only experiencing this problem? I found this problem and sent the following patch to the Collector. *** ImageFile.py 2000/11/24 05:16:42 1.1 --- ImageFile.py 2000/11/24 05:27:59 *************** *** 137,146 **** try: mod_since=long(DateTime(header).timeTime()) except: mod_since=None if mod_since is not None: ! if self._p_mtime: ! last_mod = long(self._p_mtime) ! else: ! last_mod = long(0) if last_mod > 0 and last_mod <= mod_since: RESPONSE.setStatus(304) return '' --- 137,143 ---- try: mod_since=long(DateTime(header).timeTime()) except: mod_since=None if mod_since is not None: ! last_mod = long(getattr(self, '_p_mtime', 0)) if last_mod > 0 and last_mod <= mod_since: RESPONSE.setStatus(304) return '' --- Alastair

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Best wishes
by Federico Di Gregorio 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Dear PoPy and ZPoPyDA users, last days, a lots of stuff happened here at MIXAD LIVE. the most important to you is that source code for the programs is not in our cvs server anymore and the home page was moved to the official Zope site[1]. To make it short, thierry and eric decided to not work for MIXAD LIVE anymore. so, what will change for you PoPy users? hopefully nothing... we'll continue to submit patches (we are using the product a lot) and to host the mailing list (unless they wants to move it away.) i will personally keep on packaging PoPy and ZPoPyDA for the Debian distribution. we also want to transfer to thierry the copyright of all the work done by us on the programs, to give him total freedom. i think PoPy and ZPoPyDA will grow better and better in the future. what can i say more? maybe "good luck" to them and "keep on hacking"... federico [1] http://www.zope.org/Members/tm/ZPoPyDA -- Federico Di Gregorio MIXAD LIVE Chief of Research & Technology fog(a)mixadlive.com Debian GNU/Linux Developer & Italian Press Contact fog(a)debian.org Qu'est ce que la folie? Juste un sentiment de liberté si fort qu'on en oublie ce qui nous rattache au monde... -- J. de Loctra

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Re: [Zope] Objection to Python Script Name
by Hamish Lawson 24 Nov '00

24 Nov '00

Chris Gray: I think there is a logical objection to this name [Python Scrpit]: inconsistency with "DTML Method" and "ZSQL Method". Chris Withers: These are old, horrible and will hopefully be re-thought and given different names ;-) > ZIP Method (Zope Internal Python Method) > ZoPy Method > PyZo Method > ZPython Method :-( All imply there is soem difference between the Python used by Zope and any other python ,which isn't, and never should be, the case... This is why I proposed Python ZMethod. I further propose that ZMethod be used generally for anything that Zope considers a method (but which may not necessarily be a method in the implementation language - here, Python). Thus we'd have DTML ZMethod, SQL ZMethod, Perl ZMethod. This puts the decoration where it is most appropriate, i.e. ZMethod, and leaves us to qualify it by the natural name of the implementation language - Python, Perl, DTML, SQL, Tcl, whatever. Hamish Lawson ____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie

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