[WEB4LIB] Digital Creations (Zope) interview

[Thomas M G Bennett]

Zope is well worth looking into.  Our Ask-A-Librarian service uses Zope to
maintain a database with Postgresql of the questions, answers and dates.
When a Librarian answers a question the answer is added to the database and
emailed to the submitter virtually simultaneously.  Zope is built on the
scripting language Python and external Python scripts can be incorporated
into Zope to perform unique tasks that are not part of the basic system.
There is also work going on to support external Perl scripts.  I've been
using Zope since August of 99 starting on an NT machine and then moved to a
Linux server.  The move is easy because only one file needs to be moved once
Zope is installed and its up and running on another machine.  Changing from
MySQL to PostgreSQL took a little longer  because the database adapter had
to be changed for each database used from the Zope site, but this was less
than fifteen minutes.

  The Zope and Zope-Dev lists (see http://www.Zope.org )offer excellent
support for Zope maintainers.  The people on those lists are as friendly and
helpful as WEB4LIBers.  If you create a project as a "Product" then it can
be distributed to other "Zopists" to use on their server.  This would be a
great opportunity for sharing especially between the people on this list.
When I have extra time (Yeah, right) I plan on rewriting my Ask-A-Librarian,
Inventory, and Help Desk projects as Products.  There are several useful
products that can be downloaded from Zope.org.  These products can be edited
locally for customizing for your use.  Obviously I highly endorse Zope.
Like other people on the Zope list I find myself saying, 'Well we can do
this with Zope', no matter what the project is.  I plan on porting the
Library's entire WEB site to Zope where I'll be running Linux on an Alpha
2000.

Paul's the man though so ask him the Qs to get the As.

Thanx Roy for this posting.

Thomas

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                      Rock and Rule
             Zope Rocks -- http://www.zope.org
           Python Rules  -- http://www.python.org
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Thomas McMillan Grant Bennett      Appalachian State University
Computer Consultant III            University Library
bennettt at pm.appstate.edu
http://www.library.appstate.edu/webmaster/
Voice:  828 262 6587	           FAX:    828 262 2797

Windows 95 is a 32-bit extension to a 16-bit patch for an 8-bit
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 - Chris Dunphy     Boot Magazine


-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Roy Tennant
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 9:00 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Digital Creations (Zope) interview


Forwarded by permission. Zope has come up on Web4Lib before, as an
open source web application server.
Roy


>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 10:53:04 -0500 (EST)
>From: Daniel Chudnov <dchud at umich.edu>
>To: oss4lib-discuss at lists.sourceforge.net
>Subject: [oss4lib-discuss] ask Paul Everitt and Ken Manheimer
>
>
>Paul Everitt, CEO and Co-Founder of Digital Creations, bringers of Zope,
>has agreed to an interview for oss4lib, along with Ken Manheimer,
>developer on many Zope projects at Digital Creations (and noted as
>"Mailman's Savior" in the acknowledgements of everybody's favorite list
>manager).
>
>Here's your chance to ask anything you've ever wanted to know about Zope
>straight from the source:  send your questions either here or to me
>off-list.  I'll collect and pass them along to Paul and Ken (along with a
>few I'm dying to ask myself), and post their responses along with any
>follow-up on oss4lib.org.
>
>Some background reading:
>
>The story of Digital Creations:
>  http://www.troubleshooters.com/tpromag/199906/_digcreate.htm
>  http://www.linux-mag.com/cgi-bin/printer.pl?issue=2000-01&article=venture
>
>Ken's zope.org page:
>  http://www.zope.org/Members/klm
>
>Current zope activity related to metadata:
>  http://dev.zope.org/Wikis/DevSite/Proposals/WikiNG  (next gen wiki!)
>  http://cmf.zope.org/ (Content Mgmt Framework, search for dublin core)
>
>Was Paul Everitt once a librarian? :)
>  http://www.cni.org/Hforums/gils/1994/0042.html
>
>
>   -Dan
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>oss4lib-discuss at lists.sourceforge.net
>http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/oss4lib-discuss
>see also http://oss4lib.org