[Zope] Membership - too many choices

[Marc Burgauer]

Hi

We have a requirement to implement membership functionality in Zope and
there are just too many choices to try them all, so I hope I can benefit
from some user experiences.

I want to use:
- Zope 2.6.3 with Python 2.1.3
- PostgreSQL 7.3.x

Development environment is: Mac OS X 10.3
Production environment is: Solaris8/Intel (Compaq)

We have the above components working on Macs and one of the Solaris servers.
We are using Psycopg/ZPsycopgDA, working fine as well.

Requirements:

1.) The user data has to be in a PostgreSQL database, as the information has
to be accessible to non-Zope applications as well.

2.) Passwords need to be encrypted! Only Zope access is exposed to the
Internet, so the other applications won't use the password field. (At this
stage.)

3.) Records for users have to accommodate more fields then a plain acl_user
folder offers. (Such as e-mail address, address details, subscription to
content, descriptive fields, etc.) But we still want to be able to use Zope
Roles (and local roles) for access control within Zope.

4.) Any screens ("login", "change password", "change your details", etc.)
have to be customised (ideally just using DTML, we have not yet mastered ZTP
{no time}).

We have used existing Zope products and written SQL Methods, PythonScripts
and ExternalMethods, but we have not yet written a Zope product (or changed
one). [To give an idea of our skill level.]

Questions:

1) Has anybody a working version of "exUserFolder" with Zope2.6.3 and using
a SQL authentication source? Please let me know what your setup is and if
you had to change the product in any way. For the moment, this is what we
are exploring.

We have installed it, but get numerous errors when using it. We have not yet
tested all options extensively. We think we might need to "hack" the product
to get it working, which we're not comfortable to do. (We might fix one
thing, but brake another not noticing so until much later. I will ask
related questions on the exUserFolder list.)

2.) Would CMF or Plone satisfy the requirements with functionality out of
the box? (Which exUserFolder would, IF we get it to work.) Can we use CMF or
Plone in a site with LOTS of existing stuff that is just plain Zope? (We can
not redesign the entire site, which has already hundreds of working pages.)

3.) We looked also at LoginManager (too complex for our taste), Generic User
Folder and Simple User Folder, but we got the impression that they all are
"older" projects or do not really fir out requirements. No recent updates
and no indication that they would work with Zope 2.6.3. Does anybody
disagree?

If we have missed anything, please say so.

Cheers

Marc