[Zope] Zope app to traverse *external* file system

[ghaley@mail.venaca.com]

	hi,

	there is a product within zope called "local file system"
which allows you to link files external from the data.fs file.  then, your
dtml-var's can point to the name you assign to this local file system, so,
e.g., you could call the zope file home_file, for which you set up the
properties to point to the real location of your home/user files.  so, if
you have an image there, you could refer to an image from an <img
src=home_file/mypic.jpg>  or whatever.

	ciao!
	greg.

	Gregory Haley
	DBA/Web Programmer	
	Venaca, LLC

> I am trying to decide whether I should take the plunge with Zope.
> I will be writing a web app to traverse a large directory tree and
> provide fews of the files in this tree.  This sounds, at first, ideal
> for zope, since I could create scripts or DHTML methods at the
> top of the tree that I can use to generally and systemically 
> allow users to traverse and view the information -- perhaps 
> even using the zope tree view.
>  
> Alas, this directory tree is external to zope in a real file system.
> It is not possible to add these files as objects into zope.
> Everything I've read so far deals with objects in zope.  Is there a
> straightforward way to use zope to address this while maintaining
> most of the nice zope features?
>  
> Although not the app I'm actually writing, the idea is similar to,
> for example, providing a view of a /home file system.  Special
> behavior for the default view might exist for /home/<user>/.
> Perhaps a directory of /home/<user>/src would be recognized
> as a source code tree for a particular user and special behavior
> within that tree would exist -- e.g. comparing a file with a CVS
> repository. Different files with extensions or mime-types or special 
> names are displayed differently.  This sounds a lot like a classic
> zope app to me except the data isn't in zope.  The files are live
> real files in the file system and are accessed, modified, etc.
> outside of the web app.
>  
> Any recommendation would be much appreciated!  Is there a nice
> zope pattern for this?  If not, can you recommend alternatives?
>  
> Much obliged,
> David Kulp
>  
>