[Zope] advice needed

[Dieter Maurer]

Andre Meyer wrote at 2003-10-23 11:40 +0200:
 > ...
 > Should I use ZODB or MySQL?

If you have highly structure mass data, use a relational database.
If you have unstructured data (text, images, binary data, ...)
use the ZODB.

 > DTML or ZPT?

Use ZPT (with a few exceptions: in Z SQL Methods, for Javascript/CSS/email
generation).

 > I want to make sure that the
 > database is safe and can be backed up. Can I access the ZODB using Python
 > programs?

Yes.

But a ZODB storage can only be accessed by a single process at a time.
You will use ZEO (Zope Enterprise Objects) when several processes
need to access the ZODB at the same time. ZEO is a storage server
that centralized access to the storage.

 > How does this work? Should I first learn Python or Zope?

Like with all OO systems, the basics are quite simple but the complete
story is very complex.

Thus, the best approach (in my view):

  Look at the Python tutorial (--> python.org).
  Read the Zope book.
  Look at the Zope tutorial (--> in Zope integrated)

These give you the basics.

Learn more as needed later...

 > Can I
 > convert an Excel sheet to read into Zope (using Python)?

You can do this via "csv" as an intermediary. You will need
Zope's "External Method"s.


-- 
Dieter