[Zope] Perl Scripting in Zope

[Michel Pelletier]

On Fri, 15 Dec 2000, Mike Kelland wrote:

> I've got about 3/4 of my application built in Zope (entirely in dtml
> I'm afraid to say) but I'm reaching a point where it's difficult to
> continue with only DTML (things like complicated database structures
> and validation of input fields) and since I don't quite know python
> yet (currently teaching myself) and I'm adept at Perl, I'd like to
> incorporate Perl Scripts into my app.  I got the
> pyperl-1.0.beta.tar.gz and zoperl-1.0.beta.tar.gz modules from
> ActiveState but I really have no idea if they're Win32 compatible (or
> only on Linux/Unix etc) and if they are, how to install them.  I'm
> reluctant now to switch to a standalone Perl solution now that I've
> invested so much time into the Zope one.

Perl Scripts are still being developed, but if you want to jump through a
hoop or two they are quite cool (or so I'm told, as I don't know enough
Perl to even write one).  When we documented them for the upcomming book,
I had to download my own python, and my own perl distributions and patch
them both.  Then I had to compile some magical stuff and diddle with my
paths.  Then they worked.  It's all documented fairly well in the readme,
and you might want to skim through the mailing list archives and read
everything by Gisle.

I can't tell you how hard it is on Windows, I did it on Linux.

As a posible interum sollution, you might want to check out Zope 2.3a1.
This release of Zope has Python Scripts.  These little babies are no
harder to use than DTML (many (like me) believe way easier) and end you up
with much better design.  Learning Python is a snap, I suggest running
through the Python tutorial on python.org (it's short and sweet) and
you'll be up and running in no time.

-Michel