Zope Bible

649 Pages·2002·4.398 MB·English

by  Michael Bernstein, Scott Robertson

4857-3 cover 2/20/02 12:48 PM Page 1
If Zope can do it, you can do it too . . . 100% 100% “The Zope Bible is an indispensable, hands-on guide
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• Master content management and version pp model
control strategies Zope enables
Build secure,
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BERNSTEIN &
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interface. ROBERTSON
•Plus sample applications and code from the book
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System Requirements: $49.99 USA Reader Level: Shelving Category:
Pentium PC, 128 MB RAM. See the $74.99 Canada Beginning to Advanced Web Development
About the CD Appendix for details £39.99 UK incl. VAT Zope
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onCD-ROM
ISBN 0-7645-4857-3
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CD-ROM
Zope plussample Michael R. Bernstein, Scott Robertson,
code from the book and the Codeit Development Team
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Zope™ Bible
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Zope™ Bible
Michael R. Bernstein, Scott Robertson,
and the Codeit Development Team
Best-Selling Books • Digital Downloads • e-Books • Answer Networks • e-Newsletters • Branded Web Sites • e-Learning
New York, NY ✦Cleveland, OH ✦Indianapolis, IN
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Zope™ Bible
Published by
Hungry Minds, Inc.
909 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
www.hungryminds.com
Copyright © 2002 Hungry Minds, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book, including interior design, cover design, and
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2001118285
ISBN: 0-7645-4857-3
Printed in the United States of America
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About the Authors
Michael Bernsteinis an information architect for Codeit. He has been a member of
the Zope development community since it was released as Open Source in late
1998, and wrote the first community-contributed “How-To” for Zope in February of
1999. Michael was one of the technical reviewers for The Zope Bookpublished by
New Riders in 2001, and created the Zope category in the Open Directory Project
(dmoz.org). Currently residing in Las Vegas, he has worked for two start-ups before
joining Codeit and has built and managed various Content Management Systems
and intranets using Zope. His interests include Science Fiction Fandom, Open
Source, and other self-organizing emergent phenomena. His personal Web site is at
http://www.michaelbernstein.com.
Scott Robertsonco-founded Codeit in 1997, a company dedicated to building cus-
tom applications that help businesses increase productivity and lower expenses. In
1998, he discovered a technology named Bobo that was so compelling that he
learned Python and swore off Perl forever. When Principia (an application built on
Bobo) was renamed Zope and released as Open Source, he selected it as Codeit’s
preferred Web platform. An ardent believer in Open Source, he has contributed sev-
eral products to the community and encourages his employees to do the same.
When he’s not working he can usually be found creating strategies for achieving
world domination, or at the very least devising ones that will annoy his partners.
The Codeit Development Teamhas over 15 years of combined Zope experience.
Besides the primary authors, other Codeit developers and staff contributed mate-
rial to this book, including Nick Garcia, Erik Burrows, Forest Zachman, Brent Rogan,
and Sam Stimson.
The entire Codeit team is dedicated to using Open Source technologies on behalf of
our customers, so that at the conclusion of a project they have the skills, code, and
documentation on how to change and scale each application we build, enabling
them to be as self-reliant as they wish to be. Beyond development, Codeit also
offers Zope hosting as one of its services.
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Credits
Acquisitions Editor Graphics and Production Specialists
Terri Varveris Sean Decker
Joyce Haughey
Project Editor Gabriele McCann
Barbra Guerra Heather Pope
Betty Schulte
Technical Editor
Tom Deprez Quality Control Technicians
Laura Albert
Copy Editors John Greenough
Katherine Dvorak Andy Hollandbeck
Ryan Rader Carl Pierce
Linda Quigley
Permissions Editor Charles Spencer
Carmen Krikorian
Media Development Specialist
Editorial Manager Travis Silvers
Kyle Looper
Proofreading and Indexing
Project Coordinator TECHBOOKS Production Services
Ryan Steffen
Cover Illustration
Kate Shaw
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To Ruth, for doing such a good job raising me; to Roxanne, for making my life
complete; and to Talia, for the future.
—Michael
To Kyle Reid, welcome to the party. Glad you could make it.
—Scott
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Preface
H
i! You’re holding the Zope Bible,a book we suspect will change how you look
at building Web sites and Web applications. If you’re like most Web develop-
ers and designers, you’re probably always looking for ways to improve your pro-
cess, both for building and for maintaining Web sites. Whether the sites you’re
building are consumer-oriented Web applications, content-centric publishing sites,
intranets, or even vanity sites, you want to build them faster, maintain them easier,
and integrate other people into your workflow with a minimum of hassle and fuss.
Zope is a tool that is hard to describe, as in many ways it’s in a category all its own.
So, rather than describe what it is, it’s better to describe what Zope can dofor you:
✦Zope contains a templating language for creating dynamic pages, making it
easier to create and maintain a common look and feel for your site.
✦Zope uses a powerful scripting language (Python) for creating business logic,
making it easy to create powerful Web applications.
✦Zope has a built-in Web management interface so you can create and maintain
entire sites with nothing more than a standard browser and an Internet
connection.
✦Zope has a built-in object database, making it easy to store content, logic, and
presentation in a single place.
✦Zope has a built-in security framework, making it easy and safe to delegate
maintenance of sections or subsections of the site to other people.
✦Zope sites are also accessible via FTP and WebDAV, making it easier to lever-
age the desktop site creation tools you already use.
✦Zope is written in Python, making it easy to extend and enhance with your
own customizations.
✦Zope has built-in content management tools such as Version objects and
Undo, which make it easier to safely modify and update a site while it’s “live.”
In other words, if you build Web sites, Zope is the tool for you.