[Zope] Zope 2 Development Best Practices

[Edward Pollard]

Greetings,

A few years back our institution adopted Zope to support some CMS- 
like development on a zero-dollar budget. We achieved our primary  
goals in no time at all, and we very happy.

Since that time we have used Zope to deliver a number of solutions to  
our organization.

However, as the complexity of our operation increases, it becomes  
more and more apparent that our coding standards for Zope are very  
low. We've leaned on the existing Zope community - adopting code,  
borrowing ideas, trying to learn - but have never seen anything that  
helps us better understand the philosophy and structure that would  
underly a strong understanding of Zopishness.

For instance, here are a few gems from our playbook. Please note  
first that everything works to our needs and we are trying to find a  
way out of the darkness. We're smart folks, but I fear we have  
strayed far from the path of wisdom and light.

- We have never developed a python based product, although we have  
hung a gigantic amount of external methods off of a half dozen pages  
to make it go. And yes, we use ZClasses (shock)

- We have solved problems by modifying the ZServer source code.

- We have developed entire database driven products inside external  
methods.

- Every Z SQL Method we have has a python script associated with it  
to massage input and output (and manually enforces security).

Of course, a google of Zope Best Practices just brings me a bunch of  
Plone development stuff. That is of no use.

So where is the knowledge I seek to be found? Understanding that open  
source products are prone to such abuses, I've not been able to find  
anything as a starting ground to reform our ways.

Thanks in advance.

--
Edward J. Pollard, B.Sc.
Webmaster
Information Technology | WEB Team
University of Lethbridge
e. edward.pollard at uleth.ca
p. 403-380-1828


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