Zope: Web Application Development and Content Management (Landmark (New Riders))

In Zope: Web Application Development and Content Management, emphasis is placed on effectively using Zope at the earliest possible point and then quickly learning to use Zope itself as a powerful toolkit to continue developing the website. Detailed explanations are included to assure that the reader can readily understand the critical role of objects as the building blocks to Zope.

In the final chapters special attention is paid to vital concerns of a sophisticated production environment. Zope is a full-featured environment, quite capable of supporting genuine state of the art commercial websites, but not without diligent application of competent knowledge. The needs of mission critical users are covered in detail.

This book is an excellent sources for developers. It will jump
start you with a set of essential zope knowledge and products covering serveral
major areas of cutting-edge website architechture:
events publishing (Calendar Tag),
discussion tools and weblog ( ZWiki & Squashdot & CMF & ZUBB & Tracker),
web mail (POPMail & IMapClient & ZmailIn ),
searching ( ZCatalog )
external access,
user management and security

not only it covers in details of the above area and related products, but the
authors did a fine job of making them so easy to follow and understands. Even some
of the most difficult technologies are covered with easy: CMF Tools and ZPatterns,
those two had given me days of headache before were finally making sense to me.

I have read another book before (The Zope Book by Amos and Michel of Zope fame). Both
are excellent and they actually complement each other very well. If you have read those
who complainted about The Zope Book's lack of practical contents (such as database access,
setting up zope with apache etc.), those issues are all dealt in excellent details here
in this book!

If you are one of those who have to deal with every aspect of web-related issues, such as
server setup and administration, web architechture design and development, programmers
and web content design, then this book is a must have!


Good starter for people looking towards Zope Zen.   March 16, 2002
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

First there are lots of code snippets right in the text,
which makes it rather easy to follow things when you don't
have a Zope box next to you. Sometimes they are a bit too
in-depth (like the listing of the SQLLevers in the ZPatterns
example) but most time they are selected wisely.

I found a lot of different topics explained (from Zope
for Newbiews, CMS, lots of 3rd Party Products, System Administration,
ZEO) which all bring enough knowledge to you, to start working with
them right after reading. (Or after downloading from the online
website that comes with the book.)

The Chapter (actually there are 3) about ZPatterns is actually
the most important to me, because it helped me understanding
this complex topic in a couple of days.

This book is a big must-read for all people trying to gain "Zope-Zen"!


almost the kitchen sink   February 23, 2002
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is a good intro to Zope. If you have a free weekend and want to get to know Zope, this would be a very fine way to do it. Zope is amazingly expandable, and that is one of the things that this book points out & demonstrates with several helpful examples. I was amazed at how much the authors were able to pack into the book & pleased with the way they used products to demonstrate important features of Zope.

Because Zope is so expandable and versatile, however, they had to leave some things out. A topic that could have used a little more coverage (or maybe a lot, maybe a seperate book?) is database integration. It's a big topic, though, so I guess it makes sense that it isn't fully fleshed out.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone who (like me) is still getting to know Zope. It's very clearly written and well laid out. Kudos to the authors and publisher.

db


quick way to zope   January 28, 2002
engelbert gruber (austria)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

The book gives startingpoints and does save all the wading through zope org to
find a product.

After installing some of the examples one is at a level where the amount of
products on zope org is less frightening.

And it is a real example on how to setup the 'first' site, inclusive noting
deficensies of the choosen setup.