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 the Publisher
When Amos and Michel came to me to publish this book I was thrilled to have the opportunity to publish the work of such great leaders in the Zope arena. They have worked hard to provide the best resource possible on such a complex topic. Amos and Michel are true New Riders authors in that they are VOICES THAT MATTER. ~Stephanie Wall, Executive Editor, New Riders Publishing
From the Author
This book has been a long time coming. Ever since Zope was released over two years ago, folks have complained that it needed better documentation. This book is the first serious attempt to meet this need. We wanted to produce a book that would teach you what Zope is, and show you how to use it to accomplish practical tasks. Even if you don't know anything about Zope now, after reading this book you should know enough to develop powerful Web applications with Zope. ~Amos Latteier and Michel Pelletier, July 2001
From the Inside Flap
Content Highlights -DTML Documents Versus DTML Methods
-DTML Tag Reference
-ZClasses and Python Base Classes
-Clustering Zope with ZEO
-Using Layer 4 Switching with ZEO
-Scripting Zope with Perl
-Editing Zope with Emacs
-String processing with Python Scripts
-Image Processing with External Methods
-XML Parsing
-Network Services with XML-RPC
-Dynamic SQL Queries
-Direct SQL Query Results Transversal
-"Pluggable Brains" Query Results Classes
-HTTP and RAM Caching
-Setting Security Policies
-LDAP and Other User Source Integration
-Acquisition and URL's
-Ownership and Executable Content
-Catalog Indexes and Metadata
-Stored Catalog Queries
-Automatic Cataloging
-Using CSS with Standard Headers
-Sending Email
"The Zope Book will serve both newbies and experienced Zope users well. The authors provided an excellent learning curve which, while it assumes prior programming knowledge, respects that many users will be new to Zope and therefore works through the material gradually, and still provides enough information to make it an invaluable reference for experienced users too."
~Tane Piper - Webmaster, Zopegeeks.org
From the Back Cover
The Zope Book is a book for web developers and website administrators on how to use Zope.
Part I, Introducing Zope, gets you the reader up and running with Zope, teaches then what Zope can do, whom Zope is for, and how Zope is different from other web application servers.
Part II, Creating Web Applications with Zope, takes what readers learned in Part I to the next step. They learn how to integrate the Zope fundamentals to create robust applications.
Part III, Developing Advanced Web Applications with Zope, instructs readers on how to work with the advanced features of Zope.
About the Author
Amos Latteier is a software engineer with Zope Corporation, the company that publishes Zope. He started hacking Python in the 1.3 days. He was one of the first users of Bobo, Zope's precursor. Using Bobo, he wrote Web applications for Hewlett Packard and others. Later he joined Zope Corporation and helped usher Zope into existence. Amos wrote most of Zope's initial networking and XML support. More recently, he developed training materials, wrote the online Help system, and wrote officially documentation and magazine articles about Zope. He is currently planning Zope's future directions. Michel Pelletier has been a software developer for Zope Corporation since January of 1999, right about the same time Zope became Open Source. Michel likes to hike, fly, read, drink beer, play his horns, and of coarse, hack in his favorite language, Python. Michel lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Before working for the Zope Corporation, Michel was self-employed in a number of jobs including freelance network engineer, waiter, software consultant, beer taster, sales associate, pizza restaurant manager, starving musician, dish washer, bum, Appalachian Trail thru-hiker, and college drop-out.
