[Zope] A few quickie (newbieish) questions

[Joe Grace]

Hi,

I'm hoping I can get some quickie questions answered which have been
nettling me (I'm using Zope 2b1).  I'm getting some good stuff working,
but it seems to be a few nagging, simple things which are tricky.
Rather than just finding a (probably overly complex) way, I'm hoping
someone(s :-) can set me back onto the Zope Zen path for idiomatic
simplicity.  (Other Zope idiomatic tips would be welcome as well.)  Hmm,
perhaps a Zope idiom document would be nice!-)

1.  Custom dates with correct timezone?.

I store a date using fmt="aCommon" in a folder property.  Works great
when I display it using fmt="aCommon" meaning that the time agrees with
the time in my current time zone (PST).  It also lists properly from the
FolderName/Properties Zope management page.  However, when I try to
display it as fmt="%b/%d" or fmt="%x %X", the time (or day) is off by 7
hours ahead.  Is there an easy way to get custom dates with automatic
timezone accuracy (i.e., what am I missing?)?

2.  Avoid duplicate pathing?

How do I refer to the current folder properly (e.g., for a reload)?
Perhaps I just need to reload?  I tried FolderName by acquisition which
"worked" except that it keeps appending a new FolderName to my address
each time its used, e.g., ".../FolderName/" becomes
".../FolderName/FolderName/".  What is the Zopish way to get the same
behavior but without the duplicated FolderNames?

3.  Correct (simplest, most robust?) server-side interconnect for Zope
and Java (e.g., JPython)?

Hmm, maybe this isn't a quickie, but help/pointers/options would be
welcome nevertheless.  Is there a standard way to get my java talking
with Zope?  Perhaps *CGI is the correct tool for this task (I'm new to
web stuff)?  Basically, I want to get my Zope and Java talking closely.
Performance is not a key issue (but nice of course for scalability later
on).  Right now, I'd just like to get stuff working in some proper
(hopefully standard) way with the option to optimize later on.  One
suggestion I've heard is XML-RPC which certainly is interesting but
seems a little heavyweight perhaps since I'm willing to have python talk
directly with JPython.  (Wishful thinking alert!-) Is there some tricky
way to get Java and Zope running in-process together?  Short of that,
are there some standard options for this sort of thing?

Thanks in advance!

BTW, I'm enjoying my Zoping.  I added several features to my site on
request yesterday which was nice turnaround for a newbie.  Zope can be
very satisfying to use!  (Thanks DC!)

Cheers,

= Joe =