- Zope - Zope lists

RE: [Zope] - Help with Zope Project -- please!
by Rob Page 30 Dec '98

30 Dec '98

Dave: > Ok - first please 'reply to all' for this message. While I have > sent a subsribe to the list, I have yet to receive any mail > from it, so I'm not certain that it is working for me yet. <SNIP> > I want to have a method for inserting into the data_table that does > uses this value: > > ie, it should look like this: > > Last Name ************ > Name *************************** > Keywords **************************** > > and populate both the data_table, including the submitter id, > and the data_table2. > > So my questions are: > > a) how do I get the sql_method that I am using to look up the > id# for the user based on the LastName and insert that value > into the data_table? This might be a little dangerous since you've not indicated that LastName is a key field. Such a query (i.e., SELECT id from user_table where l_name =  ) might very well return multiple rows. Could you get the person to "login" to the system and either a) set a cookie or b) a hidden form variable? > INSERT INTO data_talbe values ( > "", > '', > ??????????????????? > > what do I put in the ?????????????? to make it work? > > b) then I have an sql_delimeter line, and I want to iterate > through the > keywords tokens and insert a record into the data_table2 for each > of the keywords, including the submitter id# and the id# > of the just > inserted record from data_table. How do I do this?? I think this is harder than you might think... It's hard (impossible?) to get the id of a just-inserted record when you're using the database's native auto-increment facility. In cases where we've needed to this very thing we define a table key that is populated with a pseudo-random string (e.g., a string-ified time representation plus some a few random characters). This gives you uniqueness in the keys and, more importantly, you can do other things with the key value. So, to summarize I would, get the person to visit a "login" screen. Successful logins set a non-persistent cookie which is that person's user_id. Subsequent requests can use the cookie in DTML (and in SQL Methods). Inserts into data_tables should use a pseudo-random string (PrincipiaTime works nicely for this). This way you'll know the id. Maybe even stuff it into the REQUEST so it's available for the entire request. --Rob

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- ZODBCDA for Linux?
by Scott Sampson 30 Dec '98

30 Dec '98

Is there a target date to make the Zope ODBC Database Adapter available on Linux?

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Re: [Zope] - Requirements for a project development system
by Curtis Galloway 30 Dec '98

30 Dec '98

Christopher Petrilli wrote: > Um, what does this have to do with Zope? > [...] > I'm just affraid you've made this a MUCH larger issue than it is. My point is that designing an interactive web site is the same as any other software project. For simple projects, you can throw them together with any old thing and it will probably work. Zope would be overkill for something simple. But simple projects have a way of growing and becoming more complex. And I have used plenty of tools that worked great on demoware, but failed miserably when used for the real, large-scale project. I'm just trying to share my experience working on larger projects in the hopes that the people on this list will be able to avoid the mistakes I've made in the past. > I'll say this up front, which is that if you have hard and fast rules > about how things must behave to be "usable" and a system doesn't mean > those rules, why don't you just move on, rather than trying to spin the > world into your own orbit? Because Zope looked interesting initially, and I thought the authors (and Zope users) might be interested in my observations. Like I said, your mileage may vary. If you haven't seen it already, take a look at Phil Greenspun's web site at http://photo.net for lots of interesting discussion about database-backed web sites. --Curtis

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- Why I don't think Zope will work for me
by Curtis Galloway 30 Dec '98

30 Dec '98

Zope is very cool. Zope has many useful features. But I believe that storing most of your useful data inside an opaque object database is a fatal flaw. I learned through painful experience that having your project data in text files in a filesystem is a Good Thing. You can use standard UNIX tools to manipulate these files. You can use EMACS or vi or any other tool to edit them. And most importantly, you can use CVS or RCS or any other similar tool for source control. I just don't see how you can build a large project with multiple developers using a Netscape browser as your editing tool, unless I'm missing something very obvious about the way Zope works. --Curtis

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- Help with Zope project
by David Wagle 30 Dec '98

30 Dec '98

Ok - first please reply to all for this message. While I have sent a subsribe to the list, I have yet to receive any mail from it, so I'm not certain that it is working for me yet. Now, I've got Zope and the ZMySQLDA stuff installed on my Linux box, and it is working just fine. I can connect to the database, and I can insert values and do selects. Now I'm trying to get a little tricky, and after pouring over the documentation, I realize I have no idea what I'm doing. . . . So maybe someone here can point me in the right direction. I have a database connection on the top of my hierarchy. I have several folders under the hierarchy in which I want to be able to manipulate different parts of the database. A simplified database scheme looks like this: user_table ( id int auto_increment, l_name char(30) not null ) data_table ( id int auto_increment primary key, name char(30) not null, submitter int references user_table(id)) data_table2 ( id int auto_increment primary key, keyword char(30) not null, d_id int references data_table (id), u_id int references user_table (id)) Now, I have a ZMysql method that takes as an argument the lastname, and returns the user id. I want to have a method for inserting into the data_table that does uses this value: ie, it should look like this: Last Name ************ Name *************************** Keywords **************************** and populate both the data_table, including the submitter id, and the data_table2. So my questions are: a) how do I get the sql_method that I am using to look up the id# for the user based on the LastName and insert that value into the data_table? I have something like this: Arguments L_Name:string:required name:string:required keywords:tokens INSERT INTO data_talbe values ( "", '', ??????????????????? what do I put in the ?????????????? to make it work? b) then I have an sql_delimeter line, and I want to iterate through the keywords tokens and insert a record into the data_table2 for each of the keywords, including the submitter id# and the id# of the just inserted record from data_table. How do I do this?? Thanks for the help. I realize that this is probably pretty basic to some of you folks, but I am really struggling with this and finally decided to come begging for help. If you need more info, please ask. Dave

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RE: [Zope] - Encryption
by Paul Everitt 30 Dec '98

30 Dec '98

Andreas wrote: > That's what I'm doing now. Edit the documents, cvs commit, > ssh server, cvs > update -Pd. That's it :) > But it works only with a file based representation *g* ;) Doesn't have to...CVS has a client-server protocol. Implement it in the forthcoming Zope-Medusa and you can check your files out from and into Zope. You could even cover the socket you used CVS on with SSH port forwarding. --Paul Paul Everitt Digital Creations paul(a)digicool.com 540.371.6909

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- Help with Zope Project -- please!
by David Wagle 30 Dec '98

30 Dec '98

Ok - first please 'reply to all' for this message. While I have sent a subsribe to the list, I have yet to receive any mail from it, so I'm not certain that it is working for me yet. Now, I've got Zope and the ZMySQLDA stuff installed on my Linux box, and it is working just fine. I can connect to the database, and I can insert values and do selects. Now I'm trying to get a little tricky, and after pouring over the documentation, I realize I have no idea what I'm doing. . . . So maybe someone here can point me in the right direction. I have a database connection on the top of my hierarchy. I have several folders under the hierarchy in which I want to be able to manipulate different parts of the database. A simplified database scheme looks like this: user_table ( id int auto_increment, l_name char(30) not null ) data_table ( id int auto_increment primary key, name char(30) not null, submitter int references user_table(id)) data_table2 ( id int auto_increment primary key, keyword char(30) not null, d_id int references data_table (id), u_id int references user_table (id)) Now, I have a ZMysql method that takes as an argument the lastname, and returns the user id. I want to have a method for inserting into the data_table that does uses this value: ie, it should look like this: Last Name ************ Name *************************** Keywords **************************** and populate both the data_table, including the submitter id, and the data_table2. So my questions are: a) how do I get the sql_method that I am using to look up the id# for the user based on the LastName and insert that value into the data_table? I have something like this: Arguments L_Name:string:required name:string:required keywords:tokens INSERT INTO data_talbe values ( "", '', ??????????????????? what do I put in the ?????????????? to make it work? b) then I have an sql_delimeter line, and I want to iterate through the keywords tokens and insert a record into the data_table2 for each of the keywords, including the submitter id# and the id# of the just inserted record from data_table. How do I do this?? Thanks for the help. I realize that this is probably pretty basic to some of you folks, but I am really struggling with this and finally decided to come begging for help. If you need more info, please ask. Dave --NAA25068.915047169/plato.healthpartners.com--

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- Style question: Use of properties?
by Andrew M. Kuchling 30 Dec '98

30 Dec '98

I'm not clear on what purposes object properties are commonly used for in Zope, and would appreciate some guidance from experienced Zopeheads. Here's the application: I want to mock up a customizable display of channels, similar to what my.netscape.com does. I've started by creating a channels/ folder, which would contain little DTML objects, one for each channel c1, c2, c3, ... Users would be represented as a personal folder of their own. Now, here's where the uncertainty shows up: currently, I've created a property named "clist", of type "tokens", that contains something like "c1 c2 c3". The selected channels can then be displayed by this DTML:      This displays the contents of c1, c2, c3. However, this won't scale if I want a more complex display; for example, if I wanted multiple columns with different channels in each column, I'd really want a list of lists instead of a single list of tokens. So... is using a property the right course of action for storing such user-customizable info? Or should I instead get the object representing the folder, and attach my own channel_list attribute to it? -- A.M. Kuchling http://starship.skyport.net/crew/amk/ The tendency to believe that things never change, the inertia of daily existence, is a staple of living. It has always been a delusion. -- Donald A. Wollheim

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Re: [Zope] - Why I don't think Zope will work for me
by Roman Milner 30 Dec '98

30 Dec '98

>>>>> "PE" == Paul Everitt <Paul(a)digicool.com> writes: >> Not really. FTP is not acceptable as it unencrypted. ;) That PE> Do you think your position is the common view, or do you feel PE> that most web site tools and ISPs use FTP as the publishing PE> protocol? Just a little note here. All of our external web servers are only available via ssh. I would think that this is becoming more common. I suppose one solution would be to use the pcgi backend with apache and make a secure connection to apache to edit the pages or upload new data? ^Roman

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RE: [Zope] - Why I don't think Zope will work for me
by Paul Everitt 30 Dec '98

30 Dec '98

Andreas wrote: > filesystem (if I'm allowed too). Even better I can upload an > .tar.gz of > the whole site at once, ... You can do this with Zope and the database as well. Just write something that takes an HTTP upload file and unravels everything into Zope objects. > Not really. FTP is not acceptable as it unencrypted. ;) That Do you think your position is the common view, or do you feel that most web site tools and ISPs use FTP as the publishing protocol? Instead of arguing about different approaches to solving the problem, I woner if anyone agrees what the problem is? Does the original poster want to be able to use his editor of choice? His site management tool of choice? Load a bunch of things at one time by working offline and doing batch update? I expect us to support all of those things. I would also like to see the community work on some sample packages. But our approach will be to stay within the object system. Treating the information as data that can be manipulated outside of the object system, outside the business rules and transaction manager, winds up busting a lot of the value that Zope tries to deliver. > Actually, I've come up with a tiny Zope replacement :) If you're using Zope, then you're using Bobo. You've come up with a Zope package and we certainly encourage you to share it with everyone. Just because Zope includes an object database DOES NOT mean that everyone has to use it. Just because Zope includes integration with relational database DOES NOT meant that everyone has to use relational databases. Just because Zope includes integration with Apache DOES NOT mean that Zope only supports Apache ... I'd be thrilled to see someone contribute a package that lets administrators optionally merge in data stored on the filesystem. --Paul Paul Everitt Digital Creations paul(a)digicool.com 540.371.6909

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