[Zope] Zope 3.4.0 beta 2 Released!

[Stephan Richter]

November 5, 2007 - The Zope 3 development team announces the Zope
3.4.0b2 release.

This release is the second beta release for Zope 3.4.0. It was preceded
by an early beta 1 release back in July.

Zope 3.4 introduces support for binary large objects in the ZODB, and provides
a new postprocessing hook for publishing results. Many of the packages also
provide small feature improvements that are too numerous to list at this
point.


Packages and Eggs
-----------------

Since the first Zope 3.4 alpha and beta releases, we have finished the
transition to a completely egg-based system. This largely means that most Zope
3 developers do not use the classic Zope 3 tar ball release anymore. However,
for your convenience, the Zope 3 developers will provide the classic Zope 3
tar ball releases for at least the 3.4 series and probably for 3.5 as well.

So how are Zope 3 applications built using only eggs?

The Known Good Set (KGS)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The known good set -- or in short KGS -- is a package index that derives from
the official Python Package Index (PyPI) and thus contains all available
packages in the Python world. But for a controlled set of packages, only
certain versions that are known to work together are available. The list of
controlled packages and their versions for Zope 3.4 can be found at the index
page [1]_.

The index can be used in several ways -- described here for `buildout`-based
projects. The easiest method is to specify the index option in your
``buildout.cfg`` file::

  [buildout]
  index = http://download.zope.org/zope3.4
  ...

You can also "nail" the versions by downloading the versions [2]_ and insert
them as follows:

  [buildout]
  versions = versions
  ...

  [versions]
  zope.interface 3.4.0
  ...


``zopeproject`` Project Builder
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Philipp von Weitershausen has developed a package called `zopeproject` to
quickly setup the boilerplate for any Zope 3 based project. Ample
documentation is provided at the `zopeproject` home page [3]_. `zopeproject`
uses Paste or ZDaemon to create a working server. Here are the necessary
commands to get a project started::

  $ easy_install zopeproject
  $ zopeproject HelloWorld
  $ cd HelloWorld
  $ bin/helloworld-ctl foreground


Demo Packages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At this point, there is no demo package demonstrating a simple Zope 3
application setup. (I hope one gets developed before Zope 3.4.0 final.)
However, the ``z3c.formdemo`` package can be used as a fairly minimal
setup. To get started with it, do the following::

  $ svn co svn://svn.zope.org/repos/main/z3c.formdemo/tags/1.5.1 formdemo
  $ cd formdemo
  $ python bootstrap.py
  $ ./bin/buildout -v
  $ ./bin/demo fg


.. [1] http://download.zope.org/zope3.4/controlled-packages.cfg

.. [2] http://download.zope.org/zope3.4/versions.cfg

.. [3] http://pypi.python.org/pypi/zopeproject


What is Zope 3?
---------------

Zope 3 is a web application server that continues to build on the heritage of
Zope.  It was rewritten from scratch based on the latest software design
patterns and the experiences of Zope 2.

The component architecture is the very core of Zope 3 that allows developers 
to
create flexible and powerful web applications.


Compatibility with Zope 2
--------------------------

Zope 3 is not upwards compatible with Zope 2. This means you cannot run Zope 2
applications in Zope 3.

We continue to work on the transition from Zope 2 to Zope 3 by making Zope 2
use more and more of the Zope 3 infrastructure. This means that new code
written in Zope 2 can benefit from Zope 3 technology. Also, with care, code
can be written that works in both Zope 3 and Zope 2.  This allows a Zope 2
application to slowly evolve towards Zope 3.  Unchanged Zope 2 applications
are never expected to work in Zope 3, however.


Downloads
---------

- Zope 3.4 Egg Index:
    http://download.zope.org/zope3.4

- Zope 3.4 Controlled Packages:
    http://download.zope.org/zope3.4/controlled-packages.cfg

- Zope 3.4 Latest Versions:
    http://download.zope.org/zope3.4/versions.cfg

- The classic Zope 3 source release can be downloaded from:
    http://zope.org/Products/Zope3

Installation instructions for both Windows and Un*x/Linux are now available in
the top level `README.txt` file of the distribution. The binary installer is
recommended for Windows.

Zope 3.4 requires Python 2.4.4 to run. You must also have zlib installed on
your system.


Resources
---------

- Zope 3 Development Web Site:
    http://wiki.zope.org/zope3

- Zope 3 Developers Mailing List:
    http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev

    Retired: http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope3-dev

- Zope 3 Users Mailing List:
    http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope3-users

- Bug tracker at launchpad:
    https://launchpad.net/zope3

- IRC Channel:
    #zope3-dev at irc.freenode.net


Acknowledgments
---------------

Much thanks to everyone who contributed to this release. Since all
contributions are now spread over a multitude of packages, listing all
contributors is not feasible anymore.