[Zope] Moving a application from digicool.com to our host...

[addyd@unk.edu]

Greetings fellow earthlings,

I have just been retained as a web consultant for the local newspaper. One
of the projects they have for me involves Zope (which I have not worked
with beyond installing it a couple of times, but have followed it's
development for a couple of years). Apparently they purchased this
application from Digicool and also hosted it with them. They were told that
Digicool is going out of the hosting business and they would have to move
the application. They don't seem to have any of the documentation that came
with the program when it was purchased.

My understanding is that the directory was tarred or zipped and moved to
the new server. The hosting company knows nothing about Zope. They are
supposed to be giving me shell access to do what needs to be done.

So... a couple of questions.
1) How do I find out what sort of Support Contract the newspaper has with
Zope.com (if any... this was purchased some time ago).
2)Do you feel it would be necessary to purchase a new support contract
(assuming the old one has expired) or once things are installed and running
is there much to support?
3) Since this application was purchased some time ago, I'm wondering if it
will still work with a current version of Zope (or is it likely that
something is broke).
4) What steps do you recommend for moving this application successfully?
I'm assuming I would start with getting the current version of Zope
installed on the new host and somehow exporting the database into the new
database. Any pointers to HOWTOs, etc?

I would think that since DigiCool (now Zope) caused this problem by going
out of the hosting business that they would provide some sort of
instructions/information for their customers that are placed in this
position.

Darren Addy
Web Specialist
Information Technology Services
University of Nebraska at Kearney