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Getting Started in Zope

Some things to try in Zope

OzZope - Australian Zope Interest Group




    




Build Intranets and Web Sites That Are Easy to maintain with Zope
By Warren Crosbie and Jan Smith

Anyone with basic HTML skills can create object oriented applications that are easy to use and maintain. Zope tools can be accessed via the web a user can update documents anywhere they can access a terminal with a Web browser.

Zope and most Zope products are Open Source. This means users can download and customise software for free. There are literally hundreds of Zope products.


Sophisticated, yet easy to use, Zope products include:

  • Squishdot to build interactive bulletin-boards for news, press releases, email lists, or job vacancies - example of Squishdot
  • Wiki to enable online collaboration via a Web browser - example of a Wiki


Some other examples of things you can do with Zope

  • Zope ZClasses can be used to create and manage contact lists and membership databases or to build online catalogues. OzZope's ZClass example and the Administration Screen to add new data.
  • Zope developers use the CMF (Content Management Framework) product to set up easy to maintain web sites. Examples include intranets, training manuals, IOS documentation, policies, procedures and extranets for mobile employees - CMF example
  • The OzZope User Poll uses Zope Poll, built by OzZopista The Jester.
  • Photo for Zope is a Zope add-on that makes it easy to display thumbnails of digital images in .jpg or .gif format. Have a look at OzZope's Photo Gallery.
  • Plone a web-site out of a box content management system. When you download Plone it looks pretty much like this, Plone example then you customise it. (Plone sits on top of the Zope product CMF) There is a dedicated Plone mailing list. The documentation is currently under review.
  • Silva an emerging web site out of a box. It separates site management from content and from design. Site maintenance can be securely deployed across an organisation without the need for html or greater skills. It has an inbuilt scalable content approval hierarchy. The content can be exported as word files or PDF's.


Zope comes with:

* Indexing and searching functions
* Has built-in security providing a range of options and capabilities
* Undo support - just about everything you do in Zope can also be undone if necessary.

At a deeper level Zope developers build applications to connect legacy systems and databases to Intranets, extranets, and interactive industry portals. Developers use Zope and the Python object orientated programming language to achieve methods for
* XML-RPC

Zope Architecture

Zope is written in Python and can run on most platforms in use today - Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris, NetBSD/OpenBSD/FreeBSD. Zope can interface with apache, Microsoft IIS and Netscape Enterprise Server among others.
Zope supports many Internet protocols such as HTTP, FTP, SQL AND ODBC as well as DOM, XML, SOAP, XML-RPC. Zope can link to relational databases such as MySQL, Postgres, Oracle.

You can set up Zope on your desktop, or on a spare machine in your office. There is a free Zope web hosting service if you are experimenting with Zope.

 

Zope is created by a community of developers and users. This means your participation is welcome. Simply join an email list such as the OzZope discussion group

 

Investigate Zope powered Web sites in Australia. Overseas organisations such as NASA, CBS, U.S. Navy and Red Hat use Zope.

 


Check out Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that provide Zope hosting.
Check out Zope resources online.

 

When you download Zope it comes with an inbuilt tutorial. You are guided to build an interactive web site where fans can add any sightings they have of Elvis. This tutorial this gives a good overview of the Zope management interface. It takes approximately 3 hours to complete

 

The Zope Book 2nd Edition by Amos Latteier and Michel Pelletier. This covers Zope 2.5 and is available to download for free or read on line


More Zope Books

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