[Zope-dev] Help packaging Zope 2.7 on Windows

[Chris McDonough]

Due to the installation and configuration changes made on the current
Zope HEAD (soon to be Zope 2.7), ZC's legacy Windows
packaging/installation strategy won't work.  It won't work because
various paths have been changed around, the z2.py script no longer
exists, and an instance home needs to be created during installation (or
after).

I'm wondering if anyone is interested in helping (particularly those who
have an interest in keeping Zope running and easily installable under
Windows)

Here is the current state of things:

Currently, Zope builds under Windows 9X/2k/XP with VC++ 6.0 installed
using the following set of commands:

> configure.bat
> nmake build
> nmake install

This will install a software home into c:\Zope27.  Running "python
c:\Zope27\bin\makeinstance" will create an instance home.

Some work has gone into making Zope service registration possible via
the script in lib/python/Zope/Startup/nt/NTService.py.  This file was
carried over from the now-defunt chrism-install-branch and probably no
longer works due to filename changes.

What needs to be done:

  - Use an existing installer-packager program (ala InnoSetup)
    to a graphical Zope install for Windows.  The graphical Zope
    install for Windows should:

    - Install a minimal Python (2.2.3, stripped down of all
      unnecessary stuff besides what's required to run Zope
      to ensure that the Zope installer archive isn't too large
      (> 8MB is too large))

    - Offer to install an instance home to the place of
      the installer's choosing.

    - If installing on a Windows OS that support services,
      offer to install a service that will control the instance.

  - Allow people to create further instance homes from an existing
    software home and optionally register the commands that control
    the instance as a service (this doesn't need to be plugged in to
    the graphical installer).

I have spent some time attempting to package Zope+Python for Windows
using InnoSetup but I haven't gotten very far.  I've also put some work
into a makefile that builds a customized Python on windows with zlib,
win32all, and expat support and then builds Zope with the resulting
Python.

Anybody else interested?

- C