Thanks for your input. I have had a look at the links given, but I'm still a bit confused on how to model such a system or given the database schema rather into Zope Products/Zclass etc. I am thinking I need to write a class/timetable product, extend users properties, rooms/facilities product and courses/program product. But the problem is that some of the content cross over different products eg. staff's office room from staff/users module would exist in rooms/facilities module. I am given this database schema that I should be using, here are the tables: advancedstanding affiliation area areaaccess book building buildingaccess class lassenrolment classenrolmentaudit classenrolmentwaitlist classteacher classtype country course coursebook courseenrolment courseenrolmentaudit courseenrolmentwaitlist coursequota courserole coursestaff degree facility fax institution jobclass officeaccess orgunit orgunittype erson personproject personresearch plan postgrad program programenrolment programschedule publicholidays researcharea researchproject room roomfacility roomtype session staff staffdegree taffqual taffrole tanding student studentgroup subject subjectequivalence subjectgroup subjectgroupmember thesis unitgroups ======================= How does Zope, as a CMS make it easier for me to manage such contents? Thanks. Rex -----Original Message----- From: Mike Renfro [mailto:mwr@cae.tntech.edu] On Behalf Of Mike Renfro Sent: Sunday, 29 September 2002 7:39 AM To: Rex Chung Cc: zope@zope.org Subject: Re: [Zope] some advice ? On Sun, Sep 29, 2002 at 02:45:00AM +1000, Rex Chung wrote:
I am wondering if using Plone/CMF would help me implement such a site or how will it help. I need the user management component but can I do it with Zope's user management and using ZMI as the content management interface.
If by "user management", you mean "separate accounts for a relatively small number of people creating content", then pure Zope would suffice. If you mean "everybody gets a customized view of the site based on their username/password, and I want to build a portal", then you'd probably need CMF or Plone.
I am most confused with the content type, since what I need is probably a course/timetable management product and different type of users have different properties.
Your timetable manager is done in CGI, and I have no idea regarding its supporting data structures. So it's tough to make any recommendation on how to convert it. You may even decide that that portion of the site doesn't need to be Zope-managed. Depending on what you want in a "course product", I'd probably start with MaxM's Easy Product (http://www.zope.org/Members/maxm/HowTo/easyProduct), which is exactly what I did for my local "lab software", "lab book", and "lab computer" products, seen at http://www.cae.tntech.edu/about/software , http://www.cae.tntech.edu/help/library , and http://www.cae.tntech.edu/about/hardware , respectively.
I'm open to any advice/suggestions as to what is the best/easiest way to implement the CSE homepage.
If the goals are to: - produce consistently-themed pages, including navigational elements - delegate responsibilities for different areas to different people then that's all entirely possible without CMF or Plone. -- Mike Renfro / R&D Engineer, Center for Manufacturing Research, 931 372-3601 / Tennessee Technological University -- renfro@tntech.edu