hi, I'm consider myself a Zope newbie even though I've done a number of projects with DTML and zClasses; I've yet to implement a Zope product from scratch or deploy what I would consider to be a complex app. However, that's about to change! I'm trying to get the Zope zen when it comes to zSql methods and a custom user folder. I've got a Win32 application that I'm trying to evolve into a combination of WebObjects and Zope applications. I'm hoping to share an authentication mechanism/scheme between the 3 applications. The current Win32 app uses a combination of database protection and a custom "license" mechanism to enable/disable application features based on a user's role. I need to replicate this functionality in Zope. I would like to have a user folder that authenticates a user based on a combination of database password (i.e., like the username and password that the zODBCDA connection uses for the connection string) and a custom users table (if the user gets that far), and a license file product that sits in the custom user folder and provides role information. I've looked at LoginManager and UserDB and don't know which one to start with, or even if either of them is an appropriate launch point. Does this sound like a reasonable thing to try? Can anyone suggest alternative mechanisms to unify the authentication of users between these 3 development and application environments? We already have a database in place, so that is pretty easy to modify if necessary. I know about LDAP but that would mean major changes to the legacy win32 code that I'd like to avoid if possible. Any hints would be greatly appreciated.