[Zope3-Users] Generations of Zope and Enterprise Culture

[Roman Susi]

Edward Pollard wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I work for a post-secondary institution in Canada that has deployed a
> lightly-featured proprietary CMS developed in Zope 2. We are currently
> outlining the next-generation of our website which will involve much
> broader integration of campus data. There are phenomenally unusual
> enterprise environmental factors (read: internal politics) around our
> website so it is very hard to explain what has happened, why it has
> happened, and what we are trying to accomplish. All you really need to
> know is that we are at a place where their will be some considerable
> development "from scratch".
> 
> The question hanging at the committee level right now is Zope 2, Zope 3,
> or something else?
> 
> I've read the Zope 2 vs Zope 3 threads, and the Zope 3 readiness
> discusion, and both were educational. It would seem that since we don't
> have a really strong need to keep our Zope 2 codebase, Zope 3 is the
> place to be. However, non-Zope development groups on campus have asked
> me: So, what will we do when another version of Zope comes along that
> will completely break backwards compatibility again? They find the
> transition from 2 to 3 intimidating, cavalier, and hostile to the
> userbase. I don't entirely blame them, as on the surface it is a
> compelling perspective.
> 
> Certainly this discussion has to have taken place somewhere before. How
> has Zope 2 vs 3 been sold to the management level? How has it been sold
> to people who are skeptical of the future roadmap based on the past
> change in paradigm? How has it been sold to people that prefer
> commercially supported software? We have as much invested in ColdFusion
> as we do Zope 2 and there is a perceptual issue here I'm not certain how
> to correct via education. Clearly Zope 3 does so much more out of the
> box to support the standards based semantically driven web site we are
> saying we want in our needs assessment documents, but it is a hard thing
> to sell.
> 
> Since I really can't explain the environmental factors in any depth, let
> me rephrase: How do you sell Zope 3 as a solution? And what do you do to
> overcome the perception that our investment in Zope 2 will have little
> to no payoff in a Zope 3 developed project?
> 
> There are two side issues:
> First, ColdFusion and ASP are the other candidates, so while I don't
> want to encourage and dwell on specific comparisons, I would be lying if
> I said they wouldn't come in handy.
> 
> Second, the existence of Zope 3 has completely shot any support for Zope
> 2 continuation out of the water in our environment. Is this fair, or is
> there life left to the Zope 2 tree we've developed some experience in?
> Should I be considering pitching a Zope 2 solution instead?
> 
> 
> Thanks for your time,

My advice is: make sensible architecture for your data (documents and
their metadata if my guess is right). Then you will be able to do it
without depending to much on whatever Zope, Fusion, Rails or Gears come
along. Make sure your document storage doesn't get stuck in some
proprietary storage (cheap and dirty way is just to use filesystem +
some indexing).

If I understand Zope3 correctly (and I do not pretend I do), Zope3 is
much more flexible than Zope2. But with that flexibility comes
responsibility to comply with interfaces you want to use.

You decision also depends on what you want (non-functional
requirements). If you want elegant, high quality system - go with Zope3
but be ready to spend more time than you expect writing all those wirings.

Regards,
Roman Susi