Hi all,

I have been trying to figure this out myself, but I think the best way  
is to ask a user group! I am a university student in the DC area (for  
now to remain anonymous) trying to put together a database independent  
(or Oracle dependent, as that is my only database option) CMS solution  
for a larger student organization. I came across "Silva" which is one  
such solution, and it runs on a base install of Zope (which seems to  
be a great base for a lot of things).

My restrictions are as follows: I will be on a university web service,  
which runs Apache (don't know which version), with Python 2.4.1, PHP  
4.3.10, and Perl 5.8.7. However, I will certainly not have superuser  
access to anything, and no "local machine" to test an install out  
(folders are simply mapped onto the base url).

I am curious, therefore, if it is possible to deploy Zope in such a  
way as to allow apache to be the "front end" web server passing along  
commands to Zope without superuser access to any initialization  
scripts on the Apache end. I have scanned through various articles  
stating how to get at a virtual host and use redirects (mod_rewrite  
and mod_proxy are installed), but I can't seem to figure out if I need  
superuser access. Would local initializations in some sense be enough,  
or would the server have to be restarted at some point in time for  
Zope to work?

Finally, and this would be a wish list item, it appears that the  
university has a standard login tied to a LDAP database for all secure  
authenticated sites. Is it possible to somehow tie into that login,  
bypassing Zope's own logins, in order to create a user  
authentication / group method without the need of creating each user  
in Zope's database?

Essentially what I would love is for any solution (of which Silva  
appears to be an example) that:
1) Does not require a database (i.e. no SQL) OR requires an Oracle  
database (don't know which version)
2) Allows separation into groups such as "Admin", "Editor", "Author"  
or some such for the CMS solution
3) Allows the authors and editors to simply see a WYSIWYG interface  
accessible through the internet
4) Ability to securely transact these things (i.e. https://) since I  
could get a university signed certificate for our https server (as I  
understand it).
If anyone has a better open-source CMS solution that I couldn't find,  
please let me know. It just appears that most are tied into MySQL  
which makes obvious sense.

Many thanks in advance,

Tomek Kott

Tomek,

I have been using Zope as my primary application server for almost ten
years now and have no reason to look elsewhere for functionality or
scalability.  I do simple web sites, cms sites, and full e-commerce
sites, with credit card back-end processing within Zope/Python, and no
need for any external databases.  I do however use them for
compatibility's sake with a few of my clients that can't wrap their head
around the Zope Paradigm.

It has built-in fine grained security settings on folder and document
levels.  Set User or Role  (Group) permissions on a folder and all docs
and folders inherit this unless changed.

The ability to fully manage and edit sites in Zope through the web is my
main draw to it.  I have implemented various ways to edit in straight
html and WYSIWYG.  Easy Products (plugins) for this.  Zope's in-built
data store is also transactional with viewable history.  LDAP Access is
also easy through Product (plugin) add-ons.  Or you could write your own. :)

All access to my sites is handled by Apache rewrite rules.  All my
application servers only have local non-routable ip addresses (ie:
192.168.100.227) to mitigate exposure to crackers.  This works the same
through HTTP or HTTPS from Apache.  Zope can be installed anywhere on
any "ip:port" that Apache can see on the network.

For my own purposes I have not adopted any of the main stream CMS
Products because so many of them have most of the features I need but
not all, so I must extend them.  This has proven to be more work than
just rolling my own under Zope.  A basic Zope install has 90% of the
features I need and I just add what gets the job done.

Hope this helps,
Richard

P.S:  What part of Poland are you from?
We will be in Warsaw this August visiting my in-laws.

Tomasz Kott wrote:[...]