[Zope] Some newbie questions

[Stephan Richter]

Well, reading your mail tells me that you are looking at Zope for the first 
time today. :) You have the typical Zope newbie syndrom, but that will 
quickely change if you just spent a little bit more time. :)

What can you do with REQUEST? RESPONSE? AUTHORIZED_USER?

REQUEST - contains all cookies, form data and HTTP variables. You can see 
what it contains using <dtml-var REQUEST>. It acts like a python dictionary.
RESPONSE - allows you to send non HTML HTTP responses, like setting cookies 
or sending redirects.

>It looks like when you say <dtml-var "something"> it's plain
>Python.  What's the context?  What do I need to do to call some function

Yes, everything inside " " is a Python expression. It is evaluated and the 
result is then returned and displayed.

>in a product class?  What about a function in a class under some other
>folder (ie. corresponding to some arbitrary URL)?
>
> From a product class function, is there a way to do a server redirect?

I am confused. To better understand Zope, download all the guides and read 
them. When you are done, read them again. Then you should start playing 
around, trying simple tasks.
Here is what happened to me: The first day I sat around and wrote 5 lines 
of code. I had no clue. The second day I wrote some samples and started on 
a Web site. The third day, I had a complete user management system, a 
message board and a news section implemented (back then I did not know 
about all the existing products for Zope.)

>What should I use for managing users (seems to be GUF, LoginManager, maybe
>others)?  How about a threaded message board?  There seem to be a number
>of products planning not to continue from their current codebase.

I use UserDB right now and it works fine for me. But I have read many times 
that GUF is good.

>Can anyone explain ZClasses?  Where's all the code?  Is that the future of
>Zope?

There is a guide to ZClasses as well as a tutorial published by beehive.

>Just hoping to find the road.  Thanks a lot!


Me too, but I am sure you will. Feel free to contact me any time. :)

Regards,
Stephan


--
Stephan Richter
CBU - Physics and Chemistry
Web2k - Web Design/Development & Technical Project Management