Using Zope, I have managed to put together a nice site for friends to create folders, pages and upload images, etc. But there are some fundamentals that are eluding me.

I am able to 'register' a new user through a form to create a new acl_user. But I cannot figure out how to let them login again using that name/password and be an AUTHENTICATED_USER with that acl_user name--other than Anonymous User. I tried to look at AUTHENTICATION_PATH, but my browser wants to download it--an empty file.

I can manage objects using dtml pretty well: create, delete, edit. If I can figure out how to authenticate a user, I would like to be able to add a property to new objects as they are created: (createdby:AUTHENTICATED_USER) so that I can control which objects get a checkbox (for delete) and an edit link for a particular user. InOtherWords, if a user creates a object, I want that same person to be able to go back and delete or edit that object. Anyone else can see it, but they won't be able to delete or edit the object.

This confuses me: manage_addProperty takes (id, value, type and optionally REQUEST) as args. What is the id? Is it the ID of the object that you want to add a property to? Or is it the ID of the new property? The Zope Quick Reference doesn't say, but I think it is the property's ID.

I am trying to learn from looking at the Zope interface work. After submitting the add property form, the page url looks like this: appRoot/objectname/manage_addProperty. I see that the objectname is behind manage_addProperty, I know the value, id and type are passed in the REQUEST. How can I take advantage of this following a line like:

I found some useful tidbits at a howto page on Zope site somewhere. But it was pretty sparse and just whetted my appetite. I am coming from NT/IIS ASP world. So I am struggling. Can anyone point me to a richer source of samples that will help me get up this hill?