Julian wrote:
* Gather user login and password with a cute login screen of my own devising, not that messy HTTP authentication popup,
As far as I can tell this is impossible, as the browser program automatically pops that up in order to HTTP Basic authentication. Fortunately it is possible to use cookies to get around that. Take a look at the UserDB sample application for more details. (Note: we don't support the UserDB sample application, it is just an example.)
* Check the username/password pair against the unix /etc/passwd database, and on success log the user into Zope as that username.
The UserDB sample stores and retrieves user information from a relational database. Thus, it provides an example of how to extend Zope to get user information from an external source. Good luck! --Paul Paul Everitt Digital Creations paul@digicool.com 540.371.6909