[Zope] Feature requests and questions

Tue, 13 Apr 1999 17:14:58 -0400

> -----Original Message-----
> From: andreww@netscape.com [mailto:andreww@netscape.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 1999 4:45 PM
> To: Zope
> Subject: [Zope] Feature requests and questions
> 
> 
> Here is a smattering of feature requests:
> 
> 1) Have an install that automatically installs a default 
> webserver that
> will run as a background process

For this you can use Zap.  Which is a preconfigured Apache for Zope.
Zope is not a webserver, so to be compatible with all of them we can't
make any assumptions about the web service.  Something I don't
understand in your question is 'background process', in contrast to
what?  What are you thinking is the 'foreground process'?  I think you
might be have some OS specific issues in mind.

> 2) have a feature rich install that has all the messaging, ftp, etc.

the FTP ability comes with Zope, it just requires a publisher to publish
it, and ZServer is currently the only publisher that works with Zope.
You could presumably hack any FTP server to work with Zope, however I
don't know how useful or easy it would be.  What is 'messaging'?

> packages pre-installed so users can just run it
> 3) an easier way to install new packages - like just clicking 
> "install"

This is a definite OS assumption.  If I'm installing Zope on a remote
high powered linux machine, what need is there of a window system?  Or a
mouse?  The current command line install for Zope is quite easy, if your
using a source release:

python wo_pcgi.py

then

./start

Will get you a working system in a few minutes.  Now *I'm* making an OS
assumption that a command line is used, so you can see where these
things get hairy: when cross platform support is a goal not much
realistic effort can be put into a slick installer.

> 4) Port Zope to mac!!

Aye.  This is harder than it sounds.  Not being a Mac person or having
developed on Mac I may hand waving, but from what has been discussed
previously on the list there are lots of issues here about compiling the
extension modules for Mac, and for ensuring that the python environment
is sane for Zope.  If you have the development tools give it a try, we'd
love a Mac port.  Unfortunately we can't put any effort (read: money)
into it because there is little demand for it for the amount of work we
would need to do to make a binary.

> 5) Improve the admin interface with useful functions like "export site
> to HTML"

This can be done with external tools such as wget.  We'd prefer to keep
that particular function in an external tool.  However, we are kicking
around a new, slicker management interface (for example, you can click
multiple objects and then click rename and rename them all, currently it
will only let you rename the first even if you selected multiple
objects).

> 6) implement XML-RPC between two zope servers

The framework for this will probably appear in 2.0, maybe 1.11.  I think
Jim was working on this sometime in the last month or so.

> 7) implement a mailing list from within Zope

Ah!  Yes Ken has done some simple attempts at putting mailman into Zope,
and we are also working on using IMAPAdapter to make an egroups like
(except it will actualy work most of the time) interface to our mailing
lists.  This will be part of the Linux Expo site rework.

> 
> 8) Product requests:
>     a)web-board

Confera.  It may need some modification to suite your needs.

>     b)mailing list

See above.

>     c)workflow

We have a workflow model that Jeffrey and Rob have used successfuly for
several consulting projects, but generalizing that as a product would be
difficult.  It would require much, much thought and work.

>     d)project management

Jim has just internally released Project Library 0.1.  We will be using
it internally while we improve upon it.  Expect it in the future near
2.0.  It uses the fabled ZClasses (new technology not in 1.10.2).

> 
> 9) Create a "serialized" XML export/import format so that for 
> example I
> could email a zope site to a friend as a single file and have them
> "import" it. Sans images of course.

Hmm... I'm not sure if I know what your getting at here, but Jim has
written a little tool to export your .bbb file as XML, images and all.
It can be found in the CVS under ZUtil.

> 
> Questions
> 1) When will the next version of Zope be released?

Don't quote me on this, but probably middle of May.  That is a guess not
the official company line.

> 2) Could Zope use javascript sometime in the future? the JS reference
> implementation is open source as well, it could be incorporated...

Hmm.. What do you mean by 'use javascript'?  You can put javascript in
your DTML that will get sent to the browser, you can even use DTML to
dynamicly generate javascript.  Do you mean use it internally to control
the server or to be like DTML?

Thanks for the suggestion, it's good to get feedback.

-Michel

> 
> 
> 
> --
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------
> 
> - Andrew Wooldridge    -     Opinions expressed are my own -
> - andreww@netscape.com -     http://people.netscape.com/andreww/
> - ICQ: 6345881         -     Find It at http://dmoz.org -
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Zope maillist  -  Zope@zope.org
> http://www.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope
> 
> (For developer-specific issues, use the companion list,
> zope-dev@zope.org - http://www.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev )
> 