The Zope Book (Paperback)

~ (Author), Michel Pelletier (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Zope Book is an authoritative guide to Zope, an open-source Web application server. Zope goes beyond server-side scripting languages like PHP by providing a complete object framework, a built-in Web server, a Web-based management interface, and load-balancing through ZEO (Zope Enterprise Objects). That's a considerable punch, and Zope is attracting increasing interest from developers looking for an alternative to heavyweight commercial application servers. Zope is implemented in Python, an object-oriented scripting language, and runs on Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

Written by Zope developers, this title is concise and to the point. It is aimed at people new to Zope as well as current users, although some existing knowledge of Web technology is necessary. The book is organized into three parts. The first part is introductory, outlining how Zope works and explaining basic DTML (Document Template Markup Language), a tag-based language for server-side scripting. The second, and longest, part tackles users and security, scripting with Python or Perl, using Zope's built-in search engine, and connecting to relational databases. Part three covers scaling and extending Zope, with a short chapter on ZEO and information on creating your own custom Zope classes. Reference material is contained in two appendices, one for DTML and the other for the core Zope API.

The Zope Book offers an excellent, high-level view supplemented by more detail for the most common development tasks. The authors refer you to Zope's documentation or other resources for the most advanced or specialist topics. The result is ideal for evaluating Zope, and also useful for getting started with Zope projects. --Tim Anderson, amazon.co.uk

From Library Journal

Zope is a relatively new and unheralded open-source framework for developing web applications. In order to use it, one must deal with a number of objects (e.g., folders, images, and files). The authors, both programmers at the Zope Corporation (previously Digital Creations), introduce those objects clearly and discuss how they fit together. They then move into more complicated terrain how to handle security issues and scripting with Python and Perl, for example. Zope is becoming a popular alternative to commercial applications, and, likewise, its user base is growing. Libraries serving patrons with web and HTML backgrounds should consider.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Sams (July 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735711372
• ISBN-13: 978-0735711372
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,252,673 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could be better, September 30, 2002

By A Customer

I think a lot of the reviewers for this book are blinded by the fact that Zope is an incredibly cool and powerful technology, especially for the price.

By all means wax lyrical about the capabilities of the platform. Be thankful that it is finally becoming accepted, documented, and widely deployed. But please don't think that this book is great, just because it talks about Zope and is written by a couple of very well-respected zopistas.

I was quite disappointed by this work. It fails to deliver on the promise of teaching you how to build useful applications in Zope. It's 350 pages of "what Zope is" and about 34 pages of "how to use it to do something useful".

This is a common problem with most Zope documentation - the authors themselves get carried away with the technology and fail to point out how it might be usefully implemented. Yet sadly, the Zope community really, really needs a task-focused book like that.

As an introduction to what Zope is, though, this book's not too bad - even if it is a rewrite of online documentation. Hence three stars.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Have a nice development day, September 7, 2001

By	Philippe Jadin (Belgium) - See all my reviews

Within the last years, the web has become a somewhat serious business. Complex websites no longer use static, hard to update html pages, information is less and less stored in a plain filesystem like we are used to with our personal files.

Sharing ideas with hundred, millions of people (I mean creating a web presence!) involves at least 3 backend elements :

- a database,
- a server,
- a "gluing" language

Zope provides the three in the same application, perfectly integrated and quite easily deployed (respectively Zodb, Zserver, and Python)

What was needed for zope recognition as a good candidate for "out of the box", opensourced, and efficient development plateform, was a good book that would introduce the whole tool for newbies as well as experienced web developers. In short, anyone looking for something more innovative than the traditional solutions (php/apache/mysql on the opensource side / asp/IIS, sqlserver on the commercial side ...)

The book realy helps to "take a grip" at Zope. You'll quickly learn the benefits of a totally object oriented approach (look at the poor object oriented approach of other web scripting tools, such as php, asp or coldfusion), and more importantly, *how* to use the tool.

Chances are that this book won't suffice for realy complex implementations (like creating custom products), but imho Zope is more a "concept" than any other tools, and *understanding* the concept is the key to successfull implementations.

Beside the differents chapters (with each speaking about a particular domain of Zope), you'll find a complete reference of the Zope API, and it's templating language, DTML.

After the reading of this this book, I feel ready for more complex implementations of web applications. That's just what I was looking for. I'd say I'm quite pleased.
As usual, your comments are welcome!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent introduction to Zope, July 29, 2001

By	Michael R Bernstein (Las Vegas, NV United States) - See all my reviews

First, an obligatory disclaimer: I was one of the freelance technical reviewers for this book selected from the Zope development community.

Zope is one of today's most exciting development platforms, due to it's combination of power, simplicity, and extensability. I staked my job on using Zope to create a corporate Intranet a year-and-a-half ago, and it was the best career move I ever made.

This book is the first published 'dead trees' book about Zope. The overall tone is aimed at beginners and non-technical users, which is very appropriate even for more experienced web-developers, since Zope introduces new concepts and development paradigms. I found the 'Zoo' examples amusing and a refreshing change from the usual business-world examples.

The book stops short of explaining how to extend Zope using the Python programming language (which Zope is written in), but is nevertheless an invaluable resource on subjects such as DTML (Zope's dynamic templating language, similar to ColdFusion's CFML), Zope's web-based management interface, extending Zope through-the-web using ZClasses, and designing websites that take advantage of Zope's productivity-enhancing features such as Acquisition and Versions.

If you are building websites, whether Intranets, brochureware, community portals, or any other kind of site, Zope is a tool you must evaluate. It will do things you didn't know you needed, as well as solving problems that you do know you have.

Download Zope for free (yes, completely free)... and buy this book. You won't regret it.