[Zope] Using Zope for Document Collaboration

[Mark Langkau]

Casey Duncan wrote:

> Mark Langkau wrote:
> >
> > Thanks Loren -
> >
> > I installed both of them yesterday, which is what started me down this path. I *really* like DocumentLibrary. I didn't see anything in either product for actually editing the document from within the
> > library though. (It's quite possible that I missed it - I'm just beginning to work with them)
>
> Yes, neither are really designed as collaborative tools like what you
> want.

However, what they ARE designed to do, really match several other needs we have. Thanks again.

> Wikis are collaborative, but very light on content formatting, heavier
> on the inter-document links. It would be a challenge (though not
> impossible) to make a single document from a Wiki.

I can see now where that (single document) would be a problem.

> Making a word document back out of the HTML/XML/DTML objects would
> probably be challenging. I think wvWare is beginning to support this
> however.

I think letting Word open a single resulting URL and saving it locally for final formatting would be good enough for our needs. Something like "rfp.our-site.net/rfp/rfp-for-client-twelve.html" where the
person doing the final formatting would grab it, save it as a Word doc, and fix it up locally on their PC.

> I think the complexity of this project depends on the sophistication of
> your users (do they know HTML/XML, do they need a WYSIWYG editor, or is
> structured text good enough?) and what capabilities you want in Zope to
> collaborate on these docs.

The users will be fairly unsophisticated. They would not know HTML/XML - structured text would be good enough. They will know how to use a web browser and fill out web forms and text boxes, but not much
beyond that. The important contribution from them will be the actual content they provide. Formatting would not be important.

> Perhaps there is a better network file system based solution already in
> existence?
>
> --
> | Casey Duncan
> | Kaivo, Inc.
> | cduncan@kaivo.com
> `------------------>

There is probably a very simple way to accomplish the end-goal, but I'm thinking in too many directions and making this more complex than it needs to be.

Cheers,
Mark