[Zope] web crawlers, robots & graphs / visualisation, zope-edu

[Lee]

Hi there everyone,

I have heaps of questions...

Can any one tell me if Web sites developed using Zope can be indexed on
search engines like Google / AltaVista when those wee spider fellas
visit the server..?

--

Also, assuming the following is possible, what would be the best way to
implement such a system (and what are the alternatives)?

Background: My system facilitates the creation of student and class
information databases, and holds records of students grade, attendance
records, etc. The student can access this the system to retrieve their
records and relevant statistics. Right now, those statistics are the
max, min, median and standard deviation value for every piece of graded
coursework.

Problem: Is there anyway I can visualise this data? I have a few ideas -
if you have any thoughts or comments, please feel welcome...

1 - A Java applet - this is the most attractive option but put your
hands up if you say that you shouldn't use Zope with Java.
2 - I don't know much about Python's Tk/Tkinter - could I use that
somehow?
3- I have thought about creating a big much of .GIFs. I could maybe
process all the data and store the layout of the graph in a 2D array and
then use these 2 plot a graph by inserting an appropriate .GIF on the
page. This would be fun but it would take me years!!!
4- I've already seen that I can export my data to MS Excel. Is it
possible to do this again but have the data displayed *directly* in a
graph upon viewing the data? I severely doubt this is possible...
5- Great idea for a new zope product : Data visualisation & graph
maker!!! ;-)

Cheers for any help.

Lee

PS: Zope-edu folks, I've spoken to my project supervisor to see if I can
donate my project to your SIG. don't know if you can use it - but it's
got some good ideas. if anyone wants to see a demo drop me a line...