[Zope] Dumb question: Can Zope be used as a LDAP server?

[Eron Lloyd]

On Sunday 08 December 2002 10:27 am, Stephan Richter wrote:
> On Sunday 08 December 2002 10:08, Eron Lloyd wrote:
> > Twisted (http://www.twistedmatrix.com) is where you would want to be =
for
> > something like this. At some point in Zope 3, Twisted and Zope may be=
come
> > more aware of eachother, so my suggestion is to help develop a
> > Twisted-based LDAP server, which could then easily communicate with Z=
ope.
>
> Well, actually Twisted works already for a long time with Zope 3. Itama=
r
> worked hard on getting this done.

Excellent. Three cheers to Itamar and others that led this effort!

> However, there are several issues with a Twisted-based LDAP approach:
>
> 1. The current Twisted LDAP code does not have the right license. Anywa=
y, I
> prefer having something in the Zope core with the ZPL.

When you say "something in the Zope core", do you mean LDAP *client* or=20
*server* code? I hope you mean client, as most users wouldn't need to hav=
e a=20
full server available in the distribution. As an add-on, however, would b=
e=20
very cool. I'll have to look into the licensing issues. From conversation=
s in=20
#twisted, it looks like the ldaptor code will be going through some chang=
es=20
(don't quote me on that one, though).

> 2. I still have to write all the Request and Publisher code, which is a=
lso
> a lot of work, especially for something like LDAP. (I thought the
> VFSPublisher code was a lot, but this is about 5 times (wild guess)
> bigger.)

Do you mean when communicating to an LDAP server? If this is the case it =
may=20
make more sense to expose a Twisted Perspective Broker interface for data=
=20
exchange. I could be wrong, since I'm not too familiar with VFSPublisher,=
=20
yet.

> On the other hand, Shane and I took a lot of time to modularize the ser=
ver
> framework for Zope 3 when porting Medusa to the new framework, which co=
uld
> mean that the Twisted module would do just fine. But then Steve and I a=
gree
> we do not want our LDAP server depend on Twisted. :-)

Here is one of my main concerns. Twisted already provides a relatively st=
able=20
generic client *and* server framework. Remember, Twisted is not just a We=
b=20
server. Twisted is a network application framework as Zope is a Web=20
application framework. To push Zope more into becoming a generalized serv=
er=20
platform on its own seems unneccessary (though I certainly praise your=20
efforts!). Also, the required dependancy of Twisted (which is only a smal=
l=20
fraction of the actual Twisted codebase--the framework code), which will=20
provide many productivity and extensibility gains *greatly* outweighs the=
=20
alternative (doing it from scratch).

> I will have to investigate that further when I have time. But I still w=
ould
> love it, if some others would step up and write a **basic** LDAP server=
=2E I
> can help them to integrate it into Zope later.

Awesome. I know it's probably finals time (it is for me, too). The next m=
ajor=20
release of Twisted will see more work on the servers (this includes email=
,=20
news, messaging, LDAP, Web, and more). Twisted is becoming more mature al=
l=20
the time, so keep it in mind. We'll probably be much closer to your needs=
 by=20
that point.

> Regards,
> Stephan

Cheers,

Eron