Zope Advice for Java Man
At 05:28 PM 10/17/2003, you wrote:
Dear Jon
Send further questions to the Zope mailing list zope@zope.org. I can't promise I will have time to answer your further questions.
Sorry for taking your time, but I am looking for advice by someone with practical Zope/Python experience. I have 20 years of experience in computing and worked mainly in Java for the last 8 years after using more exciting languages and have a lot of experience in OO, database modelling, knowledge engineering, etc. At the moment I am starting to learn Python and Zope. I wanted to do this for some time, but recently I got in touch with a musician who is interested in a music database application(*). Thus, I thought I'd take my chance and do this in Zope. After reading quite some material about Zope I am still hesitating how to approach the problem. Should I use ZODB or MySQL?
You don't have to choose. You can use Zope and MySQL in tandem, via a Zope Database Adapter, which allows transfer of data to and from an external database if you wish. It depends on your database needs. A thread on this subject: http://mail.zope.org/pipermail/zope/2003-September/140708.html
DTML or ZPT?
ZPT (plus Python scripts).
I want to make sure that the database is safe and can be backed up.
ZODB is easy to back up (you just copy the Data.fs ZODB file). Don't know about others.
Can I access the ZODB using Python programs?
Yes.
How does this work?
Don't know.
Should I first learn Python or Zope?
You will end up learning Python as you learn Zope. Zope is written in Python.
Can I convert an Excel sheet to read into Zope?
Don't know, but search the Internet, and I'm sure you'll find something about it.
How can I program for Zope without being restricted by its Web interface (I am using eclipse for Java development and that is much different from hacking little bits of code in various Web forms)?
Look into Zope Products, written in Python. See http://zope.org/Documentation/Books/ZopeBook/2_6Edition/CustomZopeObjects.st...
What would you suggest for a good solution and how do I learn the required skills in the shortest amount of time?
Best Python book I know: "Python: Visual QuickStart Guide" from Peachpit Press. Instant answers to your questions.
Are there good comprehensive examples to look at? It seems that I learn best from looking at other people's code.
Zope is open source, so you can examine every line of code. Zope.org provides custom products others have written, which are also all open source.
I am sorry if I trouble you, but you seem to know the matter very well and understand the needs of someone interested in practical solutions.
Good luck. I hope you will enjoy Zope as I do. Use zope@zope.org for further questions. You will find the list quite responsive.
Thanks a lot and kind regards André Meyer Delft, The Netherlands
(*) This is about pieces of old music that are played in various instrumental settings. One query is to search for combinations of pieces with a given set of instruments in order to prepare for a concert. The interface needs to be easy to handle and avoid re-entering the same information more than once (e.g. a composer or publisher). Therefore, I foresee that comboboxes are used a lot for selecting previously entered values/objects. The application first used on a personal workstation, but may be made available for multi-user access (eventually contributions) on the Web later on.
Greetings Java Man! I've chopped the message down to the few points that I am commenting to:
Can I convert an Excel sheet to read into Zope?
Don't know, but search the Internet, and I'm sure you'll find something about it.
You definitely have options here, there are Zope Products (add-on applications and modules) that you can work with. You can browse through a huge listing at: http://www.zope.org/Products/
How can I program for Zope without being restricted by its Web interface (I am using eclipse for Java development and that is much different from hacking little bits of code in various Web forms)?
Look into Zope Products, written in Python. See http://zope.org/Documentation/Books/ZopeBook/2_6Edition/CustomZopeObjects.st...
I think you're asking about the development environment, no? I use WebDAV and FTP to access the files from Zope, and a local editor (in my case, Anjuta on linux). With WebDAV you can pretty much 'mount' the ZODB like a filesystem, and edit with whatever tools you prefer.
What would you suggest for a good solution and how do I learn the required skills in the shortest amount of time?
Best Python book I know: "Python: Visual QuickStart Guide" from Peachpit Press. Instant answers to your questions.
Interesting book, I'll take a look just out of curiosity. I'm a huge fan on Plone, an out-of-the-box portal for Zope. Integrate the Epoz graphical content editor, and you have one easy to use system. I had a 40-something attorney publishing on his own website within 5 minutes, no documentation provided. No HTML or programming knowledge needed, for him it looks just like Word. Plone: http://www.plone.org/ Epoz: http://zope.org/Members/mjablonski/Epoz
Are there good comprehensive examples to look at? It seems that I learn best from looking at other people's code.
Zope is open source, so you can examine every line of code. Zope.org provides custom products others have written, which are also all open source.
Again, the Plone community is very helpful, and the code is there for your examination. Sometimes it is easier to look at what others do...
(*) This is about pieces of old music that are played in various instrumental settings. One query is to search for combinations of pieces with a given set of instruments in order to prepare for a concert. The interface needs to be easy to handle and avoid re-entering the same information more than once (e.g. a composer or publisher). Therefore, I foresee that comboboxes are used a lot for selecting previously entered values/objects. The application first used on a personal workstation, but may be made available for multi-user access (eventually contributions) on the Web later on.
One good place to look at is Archetypes: http://sourceforge.net/projects/archetypes Archetypes lets you create your own custom content types. This would go a long way for you to have easy-to-edit forms for data entry as well as maintenance, and also simplifies your efforts at displaying lists and sorting them for the website. Hope this helps, -- Mitch
On Mon, 2003-10-20 at 13:00, Jon Whitener wrote:
At 05:28 PM 10/17/2003, you wrote:
Can I convert an Excel sheet to read into Zope?
Yes. Convert your spreadsheet into CSV and use Python's excellent csv modules to suck it in. You'll need to do this in an external method or Python product and will probably need to install csv first. See: http://www.object-craft.com.au/projects/csv/ HTH, Dylan
Can I convert an Excel sheet to read into Zope?
If you mean looking at live data from Zope in Excel through ODBC or something then probably not unless you store your data in an external relational database (though I'm really not familiar with all those MS things).
--jcc -- "My point and period will be throughly wrought, Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought."
You can export the spread-sheet as, say, a comma-delimited file - that can be processed by an external python program and read that way. But if you mean on the fly - then you might want to look into python + com (there is a python book that discusses this, its title is "Python Programming on Win32 by Hammond & Robinson). HTH, David ----- Original Message ----- From: "J. Cameron Cooper" <jccooper@jcameroncooper.com> To: "Zope Users" <zope@zope.org> Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 4:05 PM Subject: Re: [Zope] Zope Advice for Java Man
Can I convert an Excel sheet to read into Zope?
If you mean looking at live data from Zope in Excel through ODBC or something then probably not unless you store your data in an external relational database (though I'm really not familiar with all those MS things).
--jcc
-- "My point and period will be throughly wrought, Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought."
_______________________________________________ Zope maillist - Zope@zope.org http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** (Related lists - http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev )
participants (5)
-
David Hassalevris -
Dylan Reinhardt -
J. Cameron Cooper -
Jon Whitener -
Mitch Pirtle