I would have thought that you would be best advised to address this to digicool aka zope corporation at an email address you might find on http://www.zope.com/AboutUs/ContactUs. As a user of zope, which is why I subscribe to this list, I'm not interested in whatever commercial problem you and your employers have. Trying to embarrass digicool or whatever your objective was in posting to this list is, in my opinion, out of order. At 09:21 12/09/2001 -0500, you wrote:

Greetings fellow earthlings,

I have just been retained as a web consultant for the local newspaper. One of the projects they have for me involves Zope (which I have not worked with beyond installing it a couple of times, but have followed it's development for a couple of years). Apparently they purchased this application from Digicool and also hosted it with them. They were told that Digicool is going out of the hosting business and they would have to move the application. They don't seem to have any of the documentation that came with the program when it was purchased.

My understanding is that the directory was tarred or zipped and moved to the new server. The hosting company knows nothing about Zope. They are supposed to be giving me shell access to do what needs to be done.

So... a couple of questions. 1) How do I find out what sort of Support Contract the newspaper has with Zope.com (if any... this was purchased some time ago). 2)Do you feel it would be necessary to purchase a new support contract (assuming the old one has expired) or once things are installed and running is there much to support? 3) Since this application was purchased some time ago, I'm wondering if it will still work with a current version of Zope (or is it likely that something is broke). 4) What steps do you recommend for moving this application successfully? I'm assuming I would start with getting the current version of Zope installed on the new host and somehow exporting the database into the new database. Any pointers to HOWTOs, etc?

I would think that since DigiCool (now Zope) caused this problem by going out of the hosting business that they would provide some sort of instructions/information for their customers that are placed in this position.

Darren Addy Web Specialist Information Technology Services University of Nebraska at Kearney

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Hello Darren. Sorry for not responding yesterday, but I wanted to make sure we at Zope Corp got things moving appropriately on our side. To clear up the explanation a bit, we were never in the hosting business. For this newspaper application, we partnered with a Zope hosting provider. Things have worked reasonably well for two years, but now things have changed for some involved. A month ago we started the process of migrating the application and the responsibility, along with contract changes. All would have gone smoothly were it not for a hard drive failure at the hosting provider. Compounding the matter, we learned the hosting provider wasn't making backups. Fortunately we had already made copies of the application in preparation for the transition. This is the copy you have. On to answer your points... addyd@unk.edu wrote:

Greetings fellow earthlings,

I have just been retained as a web consultant for the local newspaper. One of the projects they have for me involves Zope (which I have not worked with beyond installing it a couple of times, but have followed it's development for a couple of years). Apparently they purchased this application from Digicool and also hosted it with them. They were told that Digicool is going out of the hosting business and they would have to move the application. They don't seem to have any of the documentation that came with the program when it was purchased.

My understanding is that the directory was tarred or zipped and moved to the new server. The hosting company knows nothing about Zope. They are supposed to be giving me shell access to do what needs to be done.

So... a couple of questions. 1) How do I find out what sort of Support Contract the newspaper has with Zope.com (if any... this was purchased some time ago).

You can talk to the newspaper or talk to us. Email me directly and I'll refer you to the right person. However, this must be done *through* the newspaper. We don't give out that information to just anyone that asks. Note that we're already in contact with the newspaper on all this, as we have been for weeks.

2)Do you feel it would be necessary to purchase a new support contract (assuming the old one has expired) or once things are installed and running is there much to support?

If you're migrating this to an ISP that knows nothing about Zope, and you're just learning, you're likely to need more than a support contract. Depending on the activities required, you might need some consulting from us or another Zope consultant.

3) Since this application was purchased some time ago, I'm wondering if it will still work with a current version of Zope (or is it likely that something is broke).

You should stick to the Zope version that is included in the tarball that you have.

4) What steps do you recommend for moving this application successfully? I'm assuming I would start with getting the current version of Zope installed on the new host and somehow exporting the database into the new database. Any pointers to HOWTOs, etc?

We have been providing the newspaper assistance (on the phone) regarding this.

I would think that since DigiCool (now Zope) caused this problem by going out of the hosting business that they would provide some sort of instructions/information for their customers that are placed in this position.

Though unconstructive, you're entitled to this opinion. However, your statement is inaccurate in several ways. But the Zope list isn't the place for a constructive conversation regarding this point. --Paul