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Introduction

Welcome to The Zope Book. This book is designed to introduce you to Zope and its uses. Zope is an open-source web application server. If you are interested in writing web pages, programming web scripts, using databases, managing content, or doing a collaborative web development task, then you should read this book.

mcdonc - Apr. 5, 2002 4:01 pm:
 Please note that folks are encouraged to use the comment buttons to submit comments.  Thanks!
Anonymous User - Apr. 5, 2002 6:44 pm:
 The "Comment" buttons are too distracting. I like the idea but small icon on the right in the pastel colour
 should be enough. Large yellow button makes reading the text rather hard.
Anonymous User - Apr. 6, 2002 12:03 am:
 Not to "me too", but ditto on the previous comment regarding the Comment button.
Anonymous User - Apr. 6, 2002 10:36 am:
 Use the "COM off"/"COM on" button at the top to control whether or not comments and comment buttons are
 displayed.
Anonymous User - Apr. 6, 2002 8:07 pm:
 Turning COM off does not address the previous comments with which I concur. Why make Comment a graphic? Just
 make it a link on the right of the page so it isnt so distracting.
Anonymous User - Apr. 6, 2002 8:22 pm:
 At this point, it's a tradeoff. Please try to live with it now until I can figure out how to make it appear
 on the right of the page without effecting layout. Note that the COM button should set a cookie that turns
 comments off for all pages forever (or until you flush the cookie), but this is currently broken under some
 versions of Mozilla.
Anonymous User - Apr. 6, 2002 8:32 pm:
 Note also that you may download the HTML version and the PDF version for your own private viewing as well.
Anonymous User - Apr. 25, 2002 9:04 am:
 You should have your page in utf-8 if you were to allow people to add comments. 

 Below we have an example that people add non-ascii text already.
mcdonc - May 10, 2002 2:33 am:
 Nope, no UTF8, sorry, and possibly never will be. But the comment cookies are fixed. They should persist
 across pages now. - chrism
Anonymous User - May 23, 2002 9:55 am:
 Your table of contents is not agreeing with your chapter numbers and also is not agreeing with your PDF.
 Please check continuity.
Anonymous User - May 30, 2002 7:08 pm:
 I don't find the comment buttons intrusive, but rather useful and good...especially given that they can be
 turned off and on. Sorry to be so positive about the issue, but I see no balance of opinions in the comments
 previously attached. It's so much easier to complain than to compliment. JEL
Freso - July 5, 2002 11:28 am:
 Any reason for 'no UTF8'?
mcdonc - July 5, 2002 11:34 am:
 Yes. I'm utterly clueless when it comes to character encodings. If you can code it, you're welcome to
 contribute to the BackTalk project: http://backtalk.sourceforge.net .
Anonymous User - July 30, 2002 11:42 am:
 Heh... well, UTF-8 is the encoding for people who don't like to deal with character encodings. :-) However,
 if you already have stuff in another encoding other than ASCII (which, seeing various accented characters
 elsewhere, leads me to believe that you do), a conversion will need to take place.
Anonymous User - Aug. 12, 2002 8:38 am:
 I came to this site for the first time and i feel the comments are given more importance than the actual
content of the page. I got to keep scrolling to read about zope. Guess you should have a seperate section for
 comments and the users who wants to see them can click on it and view it. Now it's more like mandatory to
 read the comments than about zope.
Anonymous User - Aug. 12, 2002 8:39 am:
 I came to this site for the first time and i feel the comments are given more importance than the actual
content of the page. I got to keep scrolling to read about zope. Guess you should have a seperate section for
 comments and the users who wants to see them can click on it and view it. Now it's more like mandatory to
 read the comments than about zope.
Anonymous User - Sep. 3, 2002 7:58 am:
 I'm reading this on MSIE 5.1 Mac and the comments don't seem to be a liquid width, which is a bit of a pain
 if you want to read the text in conjunction with another window.
 Otherwise. . . great dox!
Anonymous User - Sep. 17, 2002 2:44 pm:
 could it be, 
 that "*COM* on" should be exchanged with "*COM* off" 
 to capture the meaning?
Anonymous User - Sep. 18, 2002 11:41 am:
 I'd have to disagree on the yellow button comments above. I like them because they allow me to skip past all
 this DUMB commentary. Feedback is great, but COME ON, the only person with half a brain who has written
 anything here is Chris McDonough... myself included ;). I say use the feedback all you want over there at
 zope.org but don't torture the rest of us. I'm going to have to download the pdf now.
Anonymous User - Sep. 20, 2002 6:37 am:
 To add to the clutter, but well... First comment should explain how to turn comments off (I think some don't
 know how)
 Very nice book btw
mcdonc - Sep. 21, 2002 6:31 pm:
 The header now explains how to turn comments off.
Anonymous User - Sep. 23, 2002 5:44 am:
 I'm wondering what application is this book written with?
Anonymous User - Sep. 26, 2002 10:34 am:
 Hint: browse in two windows, 1st comments off (dont RELOAD), 2nd comments on blf
Anonymous User - Jan. 3, 2003 2:03 pm:
 Idea!!! 
 Show only last 3 comments per paragraph. 
 Put  the others to another page and make links like this 1.2.3.4.....

Why Should I Read this Book?

This book is meant to appeal to both current Zope users and people new to Zope:

  • You don't need to be a programmer to read this book, or to use Zope.
  • You should have some idea of how the web works; including a basic understanding of HTML and URLs.
  • You should know what a web browser and a web server are and should have some idea of how they communicate.

dancam - Nov. 12, 2002 4:33 pm:
 Why you don't try as well to appeal to non English speakers
 in enabling comments in different languages?
 it would be nice

The first part of the book explains to you how you use Zope through its web managment interface to manage dynamic content. The concepts in these chapters are are fundamental Zope concepts that show you how to use Zope to publish content on the web.

asparagi - Oct. 4, 2002 6:27 pm:
 "web managEment interface"

Some later sections of the book cover advanced topics such as relational databases, scripting with various programming languages, and XML. These chapters don't teach relational databases, programming, or XML, they simply show you how to use these technologies with Zope.

Anonymous User - May 30, 2002 7:12 pm:
 This should be "won't teach you how to use relational databases, program, ..." etc. If you insist on being
 ugly about it, you could say "don't teach relational database management techniques" etc., but there's no
 reason to insist on being ugly. JEL
Anonymous User - Aug. 2, 2002 9:21 pm:
 how would be then be able, to use XML, relational databases,and scripts ...etc.?
 if like it has been said we don't need to be programmers!
 Thanks.
Anonymous User - Sep. 25, 2002 8:21 pm:
This whole book bursts with lack and/or confusion of clearly defined concepts and categories. A computer wont
 be programmed by handwaving and appeals to intuition. A computer is *not* something to put magic spells.
 Micro$oft in this respect did more than i can describe.
 Also: If you want precise infos, goto the Appendices, read the sources,
 follow the mailing lists. What you get here is barely scratching the surface of zope.

How the Book Is Organized

The organization of the book is presented below, as well as a brief summary of each chapter.

Part I: Introducing Zope

These chapters get the reader up and running with Zope. You learn about basic Zope objects and idioms.

Anonymous User - June 26, 2002 5:57 am:
 Can't we find these pleasant explanations in French ?
Anonymous User - July 1, 2002 4:17 am:
 And in italian too....
Anonymous User - July 10, 2002 8:20 am:
 Maybe dutch?
Chris McDonough - July 10, 2002, 10:13 am:
 I'm afraid I'm the only editor of the Zope Book at this time,
 and I'm a dumb monolinguistic American.  If someone else wants to help
 out with translations, it'd be welcomed.
Anonymous User - July 10, 2002 3:58 pm:
 Why not use babelfish? It may be semi-lame, but better than nada:)
Anonymous User - July 12, 2002 9:01 am:
If you use something like Babelfish, which is nor will ever be able to capture phrazes or context, you should
skip the idea. To do give an example, if I'd sa in german "Ich w�nschte mir, es g�be diese Dokumentation auch
 auf Deutsch", which means "I'd like to see these docs in german." it would spit out some words liek "I did
 wish myself, it exists those docs also of german." To say so, babelfish and other automatic translators are
 still not safe top be used but rather toys, so don't play when you want to get people to use your app. Since
you play around with the docs like a fool you'd probably do the same in your app, so you'd be the playing kid
 and not trustworthy.
 I am sorry that I cannot help you with the translation as I am new to zope and 
 new to python and still trying to translate the other big P's translation :-)

"There is nothing that can parse human language but a human." Ok , Damian said it a bit different but you get
 the idea ;-)

Chapter 1: Introducing Zope

Chapter 1 explains what Zope is and who it's for. It describes in broad strokes what you can do with Zope. You also learn about the differences between Zope and other web application servers.

Chapter 2: Using Zope

Chapter 2 covers the most important Zope concepts. By the end of this chapter you should be able to use Zope to create and manage simple yet powerful web applications.

Anonymous User - Dec. 28, 2002 10:40 am:
I would like you to introduce how to make use of attributes to give the meta contents of a web site. i.e., by
 setting the encoding, author, subject, keywords for a site as well as everypages. To generated a dublin-core
 meta description for every page automatically. It would then create a culture for zope site mainainer to
 follow.
 The real power that Zope is to re-use the content with-in. To that websites should be changed
 from-time-to-time. For example, for a newer media (WAP?, DAV, ...) or for a special time (X-mas?, New Year)
 or merged or splited. The separated of content and its presentation should be the theme of website
developers. And that archiving data and automatically expire data should be a built-in norm instead of extra.
Some technique to generate the javascript on the fly should be interested also. For example, the tree-display
 algorithm should be easily generated giving all nodes were in zope. Giving that zope can generated the
 necessary show-hide code automatically.
 With Zope it is also possible to export xml which can be rendered by another layer or to be transformed by
 the browser with XSLT to off-load the work into the clients. This can also very suited for maching reading.
 It is also possible to use zope for other medias: print, video-text, ....
 Comparing Zope with wiki also give some sparks. Zope is actually better then wiki. In all aspect. Sure Zwiki
 is a wiki. But that Zope itself is a wiki already.
Anonymous User - Dec. 28, 2002 10:43 am:
 Generating css as well as xslt should also be interesting too

Chapter 3: Using Basic Zope Objects

Chapter 3 introduces objects, which are the most important elements of Zope. In it we cover what an object is in general, and then we introduce the basic Zope objects: folders, DTML documents, DTML methods, files, and images.

Chapter 4: Dynamic Content with DTML

Chapter 4 introduces DTML, Zope's tag-based scripting language. In it we describe DTML's use for templating and scripting and its place in relation to other ways to script Zope. We cover DTML syntax and the three most basic tags, var, if and in. After reading this chapter you'll be able to create dynamic web pages.

Chapter 5: Using Zope Page Templates

Chapter 5 introduces Zope Page Templates, a new tool to create dynamic HTML. This chapter shows you how to create and edit page templates. It also introduces basic template statements that let you insert dymanic content.

Chapter 6: Creating Basic Zope Applications

Chapter 6 walks the reader through several real-world examples of building a Zope application. It provides plenty of examples showing how to use Zope objects and how they can work together to form basic applications.

Part II: Creating Web Applications with Zope

These chapters provide a more in depth look at advanced Zope topics. They cover the material necessary to build real web applications with Zope.

Chapter 7: Users and Security

Chapter 7 looks at how Zope handles users, authentication, authorization, and other security-related matters. Security is central to Zope's design and should be central to the web applications that you create with Zope.

Chapter 8: Variables and Advanced DTML

Chapter 8 takes a closer look at DTML. It covers DTML security and the tricky issue of how variables are looked up in DTML. It also covers advanced uses of the basic tags covered in Chapter 3 and the myriad special purpose tags. This chapter will turn you into a DTML wizard.

Chapter 9: Advanced Page Templates

Chapter 9 goes into more depth with templates. This chapter teaches you all the template statements and expression types. It also covers macros which let you reuse presentation elements. By the end of this chapter you'll know all there is about page templates.

Chapter 10: Advanced Zope Scripting

Chapter 10 covers scripting Zope with Python and Perl. In it we cover how to write business logic in Zope using more powerful tools than DTML. It discusses the idea of scripts in Zope, and focuses on Python and Perl-based Scripts. This chapter shows you how to add industrial-strength scripting to your site.

Chapter 11: Searching and Categorizing Content

Chapter 11 shows you how to index and search objects with Zope's built-in search engine, the Catalog. It introduces indexing concepts and discusses different patterns for indexing and searching. Finally it discusses meta-data and search results. This chapter shows you how to create a powerful and easy to use information architecture.

Chapter 12: Relational Database Connectivity

Chapter 12 describes how Zope connects to external relational databases. It shows you how to connect to and query databases. It also covers features which allow you to treat relational data as though it were Zope objects. Finally, the chapter covers security and performance considerations.

Part III: Developing Advanced Web Applications with Zope

The final part of the book deals with advanced topics. You learn how to scale your web application and extend Zope itself.

Chapter 13: Scalability and ZEO

Chapter 13 covers issues and solutions for building and maintaining large web applications, and focuses on issues of management and scalability. In particular, the Zope Enterprise Option (ZEO) is covered in detail. This chapter shows you the tools and techniques you need to turn a small site into a large-scale site, servicing millions of visitors.

Chapter 14: Extending Zope

Chapter 14 covers extending Zope by creating your own classes of objects. It discusses ZClasses, and how instances are built from classes. It describes step by step how to build a ZClass and the attendant security and design issues. Finally, it discusses creating Python base classes for ZClasses and describes the base classes that ship with Zope. This chapter shows you how to take Zope to the next level, by tailoring Zope to your needs.

Anonymous User - Sep. 17, 2002 2:36 pm:
 Above: why ZClasses, i found Python Products far better
Anonymous User - Sep. 17, 2002 2:38 pm:
 Below:
 /Italics indicate/Italic indicates/

Conventions Used in This Book

This book uses the following typographical conventions:

Italic
Italics indicate variables and is also used to introduce new terms.
Fixed width
Fixed width text indicates commands, hyperlinks, and code listings.
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