[Zope-dev] ASP vs Zope vs PHP vs ..?

[Michel Pelletier]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Waddell [mailto:mwaddell@mwdb.com]
> Sent: Friday, January 07, 2000 1:00 AM
> To: zope-dev@zope.org
> Subject: [Zope-dev] ASP vs Zope vs PHP vs ..?
> 
> 
> I'm an ASP/VB/Site Server developer looking for an 
> alternative. Zope is
> very appealing -- it looks like a great tool supported by a great
> community. And I've enjoyed looking at and playing with Python. 
> 
> But, I'm uncomfortable with loosing touch with an actual 
> HTML/ASP document
> in an actual file system. I feel weird about the URL that 
> Zope presents -
> there's no simple file name reference, like, 
> http://www.abc.com/mypage.asp
> or http://www.abc.com/mypage2.html.  Sorry, but my web 
> experience expects
> that. 

(This is probably more along the lines of a general zope list question
(zope@zope.org))

An understandable thing.  To me, a filesystem is just another type of
data store, just like the Zope database or a relational database.  And
there's no saying a URL can't at some point be translated *into* a file,
its just no one really does it much.  I believe a couple different
people have come up with products that let you 'mount' a filesystem from
Zope.

Not so much that there is a reason why there *aren't* filename in Zope
URLs, there is a reason why they *are* in other solutions.  Zope is a
framework, all of it's components exist in an object space that allows
them to work together at a fundamental and application like level.  
 
> 1. Where can I learn how others have handled the transition 
> from page-based
> publishing to Zope's object-based paradigm? 

Good question, I don't know.
 
> 2. How do you create/maintain the look of the site? Doesn't 
> seem feasible
> using the Zope control panel. 

I think you mean the managment interface.  Zope's control panel, which
is a component of the managment interface, has nothing to do with
content managment.

> I prefer using HomeSite 
> (Allaire) for coding
> HTML, ASP and any text file. 

Zope supports FTP, WebDAV, XML-RPC and HTTP 'PUT' style editing.  Any
editor that supports any one of these can be used with Zope.

> MacroMedia DreamWeaver for complex HTML
> design/layout. And I like using MS SQL Server (although I could be
> converted..) to support data-driven web sites.

Zope works just dandy with MS SQL Server like it works with any other
relational database, through ZSQLMethods.

-Michel