[Zope] Where to store my data?

[Andy McKay]

Some of my first questions:
-Is Zope a good choice for this kind of project?

Yes.

-Which is better:  Store my content (Forum posts, Links, etc) in ZODB, or a
MySQL database?

Depends. I prefer to put put large (in size or number) or frequently changed
content in SQL and small static content in Zope.

-Build my Product (right term?) in DTML/ZClasses (seems easier for my users
to customize?) or build it in Python?

Python. I would say its going to be pretty hard for a standard customer to
change a Product and break your site. Your product should be configurable.

-Can I (easily) build this system in 4 layers:
    Content    -- actual low-level storage, rarely customized

SQL

    Logic/Object Representation    -- layer used to interact with the
content, also rarely customized, although does have configuration options

ZSQLMethods

    XML (page contents)    -- every URL should result in an XML document,
containing all the information that will be presented on that page.  Written
in DTML?

XMLDocument.

    XSLT (page rendering)    -- the XML documents must be transformed into
HTML/etc.  These transformations, like the page contents should be
inherited; excuse me, acquired.

XMLDocument. But I would have to say whilst XML is great, rendering it is
normally slow. If you already have the document just use DTML and cut out a
step.

My 2 cents.

--
  Andy McKay, Developer.
  ActiveState.