ZOPE

1
ZOPE

• By Mukesh Lal
• Advisor Dr. Chung E. Wang
• Second Reader Dr. Gopal Rao
• Department of Computer ScienceCalifornia State
  University, Sacramento

2
Agenda

• Introduction to ZOPE
• ZOPE Concept and Architecture
• ZOPE Management Interface
• Python, DTML and ZSQL
• Student-Class Information Management System
• SCIMS Workspace and Objects
• Conclusion

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Introduction to ZOPE

• ZOPE (Z Object Publishing Environment) is a
  framework for developing web applications
• It is highly "object-oriented" web development
  platform
• It facilitates in building dynamic web
  applications
• Motivation Why ZOPE instead of another
  Application Server?
• - Zope Application server can help create
  web applications at lesser cost and at faster
  rate
• - Zope allows developers to create web
  applications using only a web browser

4
ZOPE Concept and Architecture

• Zopes primary duty is to publish the objects
  you create
• Zope separates a URL (e.g.http//www.zope.org
  8080 /Resources?batch_start100) into its
  component "host", "port" "path" and "query
  string" portions
• Zope locates the object in its object database
  corresponding to the path (/Resources)
• Zope executes the object using query string
  (?batch_start100) as a source of parameters and
  returns the value

5
ZOPE Architecture
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ZOPE Management Interface (ZMI)

• ZMI is a management and development environment
  that allows you to control Zope, manipulate Zope
  Objects and develop web applications

Navigator Frame
Workspace Frame
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Python, DTML and ZSQL Methods

• Python is interpreted, interactive,
  object-oriented programming language
• DTML is a templating facility which supports
  creation of dynamic web pages
• ZSQL Methods are Zope objects that execute SQL
  code through a Database Connection

ltpgtHow many monkeys are there?lt/pgt ltdtml-if
expr"monkeys gt monkey_limit"gt ltpgtThere are too
many monkeys!lt/pgt lt/dtml-ifgt
select from employees where emp_idltdtml-sqlvar
emp_id typeintgt
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Student-Class Info Management System

• SCIMS is a web application that is developed in
  ZOPE
• It will facilitate a faculty member in
  maintaining student scores, grades and
  information about various classes
• Faculty can allow the grader to have login access
  to this system with limited privileges
• Selected information can be published for
  Read-Only access to students and other users
• With little knowledge of DTML and ZSQL, faculty
  can modify the system to fit needs

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SCIMS Workspace and Objects
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Conclusion

• Problems/Complications
• - installing Zope server behind Apache
• - connecting with RDBMS
• - non-detailed debugger
• Advantages
• - simple and easy to learn Python, DTML ZSQL
• - friendly interface for creating objects and
  generating code
• Zope users include Viacom, NASA, Boston.com, Red
  Hat and many others
• ZOPE can be extended using the interpreted Python
  Scripting language