[Zope] Design question for a problem tracking Systems using Zope

[Oliver Andrich]

Hi,

I decided, because crucial need and lack of any good system, to develop a
problem tracking system using Zope. But I have to ask some questions before
starting on this project and maybe some people which already reached a certain
level of Zope Zen, can help me with my questions and problems.

1. user management
==================

The Zope user module suits my needs very good, but I like to add some extra
properties to users. Is it possible to easily extend the user management
system of Zope. I need only three extra fields: email address, telephone and
fax number.

I searched on Zope.org for User and such terms, but haven't anything on this
yet. Or do I have to develop my own user management system?

2. Bunch of DTML Documents + Factory methods vs. SQL database
=============================================================

This system will be used for a small administrator team of an ISP. We already
gave PTS and keepstone a try, but both sucked more or less. Both use a SQL
database as storage, this is fine but on the other hand it would be fine that
tasks are simply new DTML documents, and follow ups are also just documents
linked to the first document. Documents would be nice, cause so we can use the
access control system of Zope and can easily decide which documents should be
public visible. Got what I mean?

I mean is, what is a tracking system different from a bunch of documents which
are associated to a task or problem? So wouldn't be a document approach be a
nice way to do this? Things as due dates, expiration, returning tasks after n
days etc. can be achieved Zopes builtin mechanism.

So, some opinions on this would be a nice thing. I know, that this is not a
Zope question in itself, but I need some input form Zope Zen users, that can
help me to decide on this question. I know how to do the SQL thing, but the
document thing seems nice to me. But is it possible using Zope?

Thanks and best regards,

    Oliver


-- 
Oliver Andrich, KEVAG Telekom GmbH, Schlossstrasse 42, D-56068 Koblenz
Telefon: 0261-3921027 / Fax: 0261-3921033 / Web: http://rhein-zeitung.de