Hi All, This is a general question because I don't have Zope up and running now. We have a large (Sybase) database of gene expression information which includes an anatomical dictionary. The anatomical dictionary is hierarchical - i.e. organized by embryonic stage, anatomical structures, substructures, cell types. Currently there is a (Python) script that periodically generate HTML files from the database which list all of the dictionary terms in a space-delimited text format. This format is not only clumsy (these are long lists), but it's also not interactive. Ideally, we'd like to display the data as a hierarchical tree, allowing expansion and collapse of each node (e.g. click on "brain" node and get all the substructures of the brain, click on a brain substructure and get the cell types found in that substructure). Also, we might like to have users be able to make queries directly from the anatomical dictionary (e.g. what genes are expressed in this cell type in the cerebellum?)
From the Zope docs that I've read, it seems like Zope is well suited for this. We also have some very good Python programmers here (and I've done a bit). However, before I go full bore in trying to convince my boss, I'd like to hear from the Zopistas:
Does this problem scream Zope!? I know you can use SQL with the tree tag, but are there examples that I could look at? (recent posts to the list about this haven't gotten a lot of responses) What is the status of the Sybase DA? Thanks in advance. John