etcUserFolder_to_XUF

HOWTO Convert from etcUserFolder to exUserFolder (XUF)

Problem: etcUserFolder is not maintained, causes warnings with zope 2.4 / python 2.1 and is rather bare-bone featured.

Solution: replace with exUserFolder with its undocumented etcUserFolder mode

Procedure

Install exUserFolder product
create an instance of it in replacement of the instance of etcUs erFolder
move the password file from /path_to_zope_root/ etcUsers to /path_to_zope_root/ exUsers (make sure zope process still has permission)
choose File Based Authentication Source
choose Null properties
choose Null Membership Source

and you will get several forms to fill out ... eventually giving you the equivalent of etcUsersFolder as well as extra features such as better security and the ability to change some settings

Trouble

Anonymous and Authenticated Role Trap: Be very careful not to give Anonymous User more permissions than Authenticated because you get strange side-effects like double requests for login authentication in frames
Adding Roles I appear to be able to add roles, but when I return to the user, I get *Error Type: TypeError? Error Value: in or not in needs sequence right argument* The Unenlightened guide is a little bit contradictory: it says I can change roles but later says I might only be able to declare a default role at the start (the old behavior of etcUserFolder)
Using SlaveUserFolder, I can get around this problem for subfolders
From: "Brett Haydon" 2 Jan 2002 Subject: How do I uninstall exuser

I removed the product (and the exuser folder I had created) but the permission options in the security tab remained. The folder that had held the exuser folder was totally inaccessible. The only way to get back into the folder was to reinstall XUF.

I eventually worked out that by creating a new folder and copying the entire contents of the old folder across was the only way to remove the apparent dependency on XUF.

Once that was done I deleted the old folder which had held originally contained the exuser folder, and the permission option for exuser disappeared on all folders.

Jumping the Gun: on one server, I removed the etcUserFolder Product without realizing that there was still one folder making use of it. I was unable to get into that folder until I re-installed the etcUserFolder and was able to convert it properly to exUserFolder as per instructions above.

Alternatives to File Based passwd-like files

LDAP which I have ruled out for this year until administration tools become much simpler and more reliable: slashdot conversation about LDAP
PostgresSQL based tables which I like since I use postgresql anyways.
ZODB - the default enhanced with exUserFolder is quite a decent solution for single schools. I need something more interchangeable for multi-school environments ... but with ZEO, ...

Resources

Documentation in the Product
Unentlightened Zopista Guide to exUserFolder
XUF on sourceforge