Butch Landingin wrote:

Hi all,

I've created a proposal for a new Zope product which I'm in the process of building.

The url of the proposal is:

http://www.zope.org/Members/butchland/ZopePackProposal/index_html

Its a long document and it suffers a little in the succintness/clarity department (sorry about that :()

In summary, I'm proposing a mechanism by which we can manage ZClasses and other objects (e.g. Folders) exported via .zexp files and somewhat make the process of deploying ZClass-based applications easier and error-free.

I hope you take the time out to read it and give me your valuable opinion, advice, and help.

Here's one comment that should provide a good place to start. There is already a mechanism for creating product distributions for products created through the web. When you develop a product with ZClasses and you want to distribute it, you can use a web interface to create a tar ball that can be installed just like any other Zope product. There is no need to fool around with export files and no need to have an inconsistent installation mechanisms. This is documented in the Zope Content Manager's Guide, http://www.zope.org/Documentation/Guides/ZCMG, in the chapter on "Zope Applications and Products", http://www.zope.org/Documentation/Guides/ZCMG-HTML/ZCMG.6.html, in the section on "Creating Product Distributions", http://www.zope.org/Documentation/Guides/ZCMG-HTML/ZCMG.6.4.html. This mechanism is far from perfect and I look forward to suggestions and implementation for enhancements. We also have some specific ideas for enhancing this mechanism. This seems to be one of those topics of "Zope Zen" that is not widely known. (Very few people at DC seem to be aware of it.) This is a bit ironic, since this feature has been *documented* for well over a year. :( Jim -- Jim Fulton mailto:jim@digicool.com Python Powered! Technical Director (888) 344-4332 http://www.python.org Digital Creations http://www.digicool.com http://www.zope.org Under US Code Title 47, Sec.227(b)(1)(C), Sec.227(a)(2)(B) This email address may not be added to any commercial mail list with out my permission. Violation of my privacy with advertising or SPAM will result in a suit for a MINIMUM of $500 damages/incident, $1500 for repeats.