can I use my existing twisted rpc app in zope.
hello all, I am new to this mailing list and pritty new to zope as well. I have been reading the zope wiki and trying to find many answers to all the questions I have about this very powerful application server. My first question is, should I use zope 2 or zope3 for a financial/ accounting software? I am not intending to develop just a web site but a complete web application which will be used in fields like Point of Sales and micro finance. I feel I must go for zope 3 because the wiki says that zope3 is targeted at application developers for the web. But at the same time I am unsure whether zope3 has products for tasks such as open office integration and call to a database. This brings me to the second and the main question for which I am writing this email. I have a team of python developers working on the core logic of the system and they have already written an RPC based server application containing the entire core logic. Right now we use a gtk based thin client to make calls to the rpc server based API. I would be interested to know if I can directly take this twisted based rpc server application and put it inside zope. What I mean is that I would like to directly integrate my already developed rpc server application inside zope in such a way that it sits in the server and I can let people write clients to make calls on the server either through other zope products as clients or any other language. So is this possible and should zope3 be the right choice for this? happy hacking. Krishnakant.
On 02.05.09 10:45, Krishnakant wrote:
hello all, I am new to this mailing list and pritty new to zope as well.
I have been reading the zope wiki and trying to find many answers to all the questions I have about this very powerful application server.
My first question is, should I use zope 2 or zope3 for a financial/ accounting software? I am not intending to develop just a web site but a complete web application which will be used in fields like Point of Sales and micro finance. I feel I must go for zope 3 because the wiki says that zope3 is targeted at application developers for the web.
But at the same time I am unsure whether zope3 has products for tasks such as open office integration and call to a database.
This brings me to the second and the main question for which I am writing this email. I have a team of python developers working on the core logic of the system and they have already written an RPC based server application containing the entire core logic.
Consider using GROK first. -aj
On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 10:45, Krishnakant <krmane@gmail.com> wrote:
My first question is, should I use zope 2 or zope3 for a financial/ accounting software? I am not intending to develop just a web site but a complete web application which will be used in fields like Point of Sales and micro finance. I feel I must go for zope 3 because the wiki says that zope3 is targeted at application developers for the web.
It's really up to you. Personally, I would recommend looking into either Grok, which is based on Zope 3, or BFG, which is a minimalistic framework using Zope 3 technologies. http://grok.zope.org/ http://bfg.repoze.org/
But at the same time I am unsure whether zope3 has products for tasks such as open office integration and call to a database.
You can use ny Python library both from Zope 2 and Zope 3. Often easier from Zope 3 in fact.
Right now we use a gtk based thin client to make calls to the rpc server based API. I would be interested to know if I can directly take this twisted based rpc server application and put it inside zope.
That depends on what you mean with "inside".
What I mean is that I would like to directly integrate my already developed rpc server application inside zope in such a way that it sits in the server
I don't understand what you mean with having a twisted server inside a zope server. It doesn't make any sense to me. Zope talks either HTTP or WSGI (which in turn talks HTTP). The RCP server doesn't. I don't see how "inside" makes sense there. Can the two servers talk to each other and share data? Sure, there are many solutions for that. Can you have the same application talk both HTTP and RPC? Sure. But in either case neither is "inside" the other.
So is this possible and should zope3 be the right choice for this?
Zope 3, or rather Grok or BFG, is the right answer to everything. ;) -- Lennart Regebro: Python, Zope, Plone, Grok http://regebro.wordpress.com/ +33 661 58 14 64
It's really up to you. Personally, I would recommend looking into either Grok, which is based on Zope 3, or BFG, which is a minimalistic framework using Zope 3 technologies.
I see, By the way will 5 help me solve this confusion?
But at the same time I am unsure whether zope3 has products for tasks such as open office integration and call to a database.
You can use ny Python library both from Zope 2 and Zope 3. Often easier from Zope 3 in fact.
Well my requirement is to have open office spreadsheet integration so that I can create ledger reports etc as a spreadsheet. I had recently herd about a zope product which does that but can't remember that name which was similar to zetac or some thing.
What I mean is that I would like to directly integrate my already developed rpc server application inside zope in such a way that it sits in the server
I don't understand what you mean with having a twisted server inside a zope server. It doesn't make any sense to me. Zope talks either HTTP or WSGI (which in turn talks HTTP). The RCP server doesn't. I don't see how "inside" makes sense there. Can the two servers talk to each other and share data? Sure, there are many solutions for that.
I will try and make my problem clear. Right now my application is a twisted based rpc server application which gives the set of api like setCustomer() getCustomer() etc. Right now we have created a gtk based thin client which is nothing but an rpc client which calls the rpc published objects in the server application. Now if I want to take the entire rpc server based application and put it into zope in such a way that my rpc application is not disturbed but the features like PAS get integrated, will this be possible? More presisely, I want to use zope for this same application server and have it do the same work on xml rpc. But if I have to re-write the entire rpc application server, then it will be a tedious task. What I am thinking is to take this twisted based application server and make it a zope product. This way my classes and the published objects for rpc requests remain intact and I continue adding feature enhancements like security and other advantages which zope would give as an application server. So my simple twisted based rpc application becomes a zope product which sits in zope and takes the advantage of all that zope has to offer. I hope I am clear this time. Thanks and happy hacking. Krishnakant. continue adding
On 5/2/09 7:04 AM, Krishnakant wrote:
It's really up to you. Personally, I would recommend looking into either Grok, which is based on Zope 3, or BFG, which is a minimalistic framework using Zope 3 technologies.
I see, By the way will 5 help me solve this confusion?
No, it will just confuse you more. ;-)
I will try and make my problem clear. Right now my application is a twisted based rpc server application which gives the set of api like setCustomer() getCustomer() etc.
Right now we have created a gtk based thin client which is nothing but an rpc client which calls the rpc published objects in the server application.
Now if I want to take the entire rpc server based application and put it into zope in such a way that my rpc application is not disturbed but the features like PAS get integrated, will this be possible?
No, at least without doing "some work" (where "some work" is more than just dropping your code into a directory and expecting Zope to pick it up and "serve it out"). It will essentially be a rewrite, although maybe with some careful coding you'd be able to reuse most of the existing code. - C
On Sat, 2009-05-02 at 20:16 -0400, Chris McDonough wrote: No, at least without doing "some work" (where "some work" is more than just dropping your code into a directory and expecting Zope to pick it up and "serve it out"). It will essentially be a rewrite, although maybe with some careful coding you'd be able to reuse most of the existing code.
Yes, that's exactly my point. I don't mean that I would just drop the code into a folder and expect zope to do every thing write. My question was will I be able to re-use my published objects and their functionality by coding it in such a way that zope hosts the twisted based rpc server application I already have? This implies that my application core logic with the sets of Published API calls need not change but let's say I add the necessary things to make my app a zope product and still have it work as an rpc server? I had read somewhere that zope uses twisted, so I thought will my app be put into zope as a server product with of course the necessary additions to the package to make it a zope product. So is that possible? happy hacking. Krishnakant.
On 5/3/09 11:21 AM, Krishnakant wrote:
On Sat, 2009-05-02 at 20:16 -0400, Chris McDonough wrote: No, at least without doing "some work" (where "some work" is more than just dropping your code into a directory and expecting Zope to pick it up and "serve it out"). It will essentially be a rewrite, although maybe with some careful coding you'd be able to reuse most of the existing code.
Yes, that's exactly my point. I don't mean that I would just drop the code into a folder and expect zope to do every thing write.
My question was will I be able to re-use my published objects and their functionality by coding it in such a way that zope hosts the twisted based rpc server application I already have?
Likely no.
This implies that my application core logic with the sets of Published API calls need not change but let's say I add the necessary things to make my app a zope product and still have it work as an rpc server?
The application you already have was probably written to an API that assumes that the Twisted mainloop is running. In "normal mode" under Zope, Twisted's mainloop is not running. I'm not even certain that if you use the Twisted HTTP server support in Zope whether your application will run without modification. Almost certainly if it did it would be "off to the side" unable to use Zope authentication services, etc, because the server contacts your code directly without indirecting through any Zope "ZPublisher" stuff. The magic that makes authentication services and so on work are basically all wrapped up in ZPublisher. In order to make use of them you'd need to rewrite your application as a native Zope app.
I had read somewhere that zope uses twisted, so I thought will my app be put into zope as a server product with of course the necessary additions to the package to make it a zope product.
So is that possible?
Sorry, not in the way you've described. - C
On 5/3/09 11:21 AM, Krishnakant wrote:
On Sat, 2009-05-02 at 20:16 -0400, Chris McDonough wrote: No, at least without doing "some work" (where "some work" is more than just dropping your code into a directory and expecting Zope to pick it up and "serve it out"). It will essentially be a rewrite, although maybe with some careful coding you'd be able to reuse most of the existing code.
Yes, that's exactly my point. I don't mean that I would just drop the code into a folder and expect zope to do every thing write.
My question was will I be able to re-use my published objects and their functionality by coding it in such a way that zope hosts the twisted based rpc server application I already have?
By the way, for the record, you *might* be better off trying to serve up your Twisted app through WSGI and use WSGI middleware to do the authentication/authorization, and what-have-you instead of trying to tie your application into Zope to get those features. - C
On Sat, 2009-05-02 at 20:16 -0400, Chris McDonough wrote: By the way, for the record, you *might* be better off trying to serve up your Twisted app through WSGI and use WSGI middleware to do the authentication/authorization, and what-have-you instead of trying to tie your application into Zope to get those features.
WSGI? what does that exactly do? happy hacking. Krishnakant.
On 5/3/09 12:40 PM, Krishnakant wrote:
On Sat, 2009-05-02 at 20:16 -0400, Chris McDonough wrote: By the way, for the record, you *might* be better off trying to serve up your Twisted app through WSGI and use WSGI middleware to do the authentication/authorization, and what-have-you instead of trying to tie your application into Zope to get those features.
WSGI? what does that exactly do?
Google is your friend. - C
On Sat, 2009-05-02 at 20:16 -0400, Chris McDonough wrote: By the way, for the record, you *might* be better off trying to serve up your Twisted app through WSGI and use WSGI middleware to do the authentication/authorization, and what-have-you instead of trying to tie your application into Zope to get those features.
WSGI? what does that exactly do? happy hacking. Krishnakant
On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 13:04, Krishnakant <krmane@gmail.com> wrote:
It's really up to you. Personally, I would recommend looking into either Grok, which is based on Zope 3, or BFG, which is a minimalistic framework using Zope 3 technologies.
I see, By the way will 5 help me solve this confusion?
No.
Now if I want to take the entire rpc server based application and put it into zope in such a way that my rpc application is not disturbed but the features like PAS get integrated, will this be possible?
More presisely, I want to use zope for this same application server and have it do the same work on xml rpc.
That surely is possible. How much you need to rewrite it impossible to answer without knowing your code. You don't "talk" to Zope the same way you "talk" to Twisted, for example.
My question was will I be able to re-use my published objects and their functionality by coding it in such a way that zope hosts the twisted based rpc server application I already have?
No, you will have to take your objects out of twisted and put them in Zope. If your objects are tightly integrated with Twisted, you are likely better off keeping the servers separate applications, but make them talk to each other. Chris recommendation of WSGI makes sense. -- Lennart Regebro: Python, Zope, Plone, Grok http://regebro.wordpress.com/ +33 661 58 14 64
On Sun, 2009-05-03 at 18:48 +0200, Lennart Regebro wrote:
That surely is possible. How much you need to rewrite it impossible to answer without knowing your code. You don't "talk" to Zope the same way you "talk" to Twisted, for example.
OK, you can look at the code at http://gnukhata.gnulinux.in/svn/gnukhata_alpha by doing svn co on that url. Look at the server part which is in gnukhata-server/GNUKhata-ApplicationServer. GNUKhata is an accounting/ Point Of Sales Application and is supposed to be just a usual accounting solution with customisation for tax and inventory types. However this is just for the beginning, in the later stages we aim to make it an application which can be used on the web as a micro financing tool and Point Of Sales in the rural areas. There will be people carrying small netbooks with just Ubuntu or Fedora installed with a web browser. Then they can talk to one of the servers and do the transactions. In addition we will have a p2p model for sharing moduels (plugins ) which can represent new accounting voucher types, account heads and even inventory categories. This will reduce the time it takes every time an application is deployed after case study. Right now the twisted based RPC server application is just a bunch of published classes for getting and setting the data and the entire processing logic for the transactions on account heads for every type of voucher or invoice created by the client. The rpc app also provides Get methods for clients which intend to generate reports on the basis of the data provided as a service. Thus we have getLedger, getTrialBalance etc. All the logic is in the server application and represented in all the classes which inherit the twisted's server class. I am thinking that I will take this out of twisted and I am ready to put all these classes into a zope product, no matter if I have to write some bit of code for this. My only question is that will I have to change the way my existing classes call stored procedures in postgresql database or do I need to make changes to the logic which sends across the queries to my database? And yes, I still want this application to work as an RPC server app. So would like to know if zope can serv my application as an rpc server? I am ready to take it out of twisted, but was confused because I herd zope uses twisted. All that I need is that it should still remain as an rpc server and nothing else. I will then think of writing a web based client which can again be run by zope.
My question was will I be able to re-use my published objects and their functionality by coding it in such a way that zope hosts the twisted based rpc server application I already have?
No, you will have to take your objects out of twisted and put them in Zope.
As I said previously, I am ready to do that.
If your objects are tightly integrated with Twisted, you are likely better off keeping the servers separate applications, but make them talk to each other. Chris recommendation of WSGI makes sense.
Will this not be a heavy and tedious task? I any ways have my application as a server and want to make it web enabled by making a browser work as a client with some middleware to talk to my application. The idea for using zope came to me because I can see that zope will become a one-stop solution for all my needs. happy hacking. Krishnakant.
participants (4)
-
Andreas Jung -
Chris McDonough -
Krishnakant -
Lennart Regebro