State of Zope 3
===============

Stephan Richter

Neckar Sprint

Tübingen, October 6, 2005

*License:* http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/


The last 12 months
------------------

- Zope 2.8
- Zope X3 3.0
- Lots of new Zope 3 applications

  + Tiks + Life Site
  + Bebop
  + SchoolBell/SchoolTool
  + Launchpad
  + Custom Projects (ZC, Dylan R., ...)
  + Five Projects (i.e. TextIndexNG, Silva)


Zope 3 applications
-------------------

- Work on Zope 3 itself slowed as people
  began working on applications
- Many interesting Zope 3 applications
  emerging
- Contributions reflecting application
  experience.

**Zope 3 Development is driven by
application development now!**


Zope 3.1
--------

- Dropped the “X”; we believe the code is not
  experimental anymore
- Major cleanups (more on next slides...)
- Many new features based on applications
- Too many goodies to mention ...(for an
  overview see the release notes)
- Too to long


Component Arch. Simplifications
-------------------------------

- Merged services and utilities
- Generalized “implements” to factories
- Provided adaptation declarations
- declaration decorators
- Major cleanup of local registration
- Simpler declaration API (mainly for tests and
  non-Zope applications).


Security
--------

- Groups
- Pluggable authentication
- canAccess/canWrite helper functions
- New Granting UI with “advanced” search
- Simpler alternative security policy
  (ZC plan to release it later this year)


ZCML Simplification
-------------------

- Leverage declarations in Python
- Greater use of adapter directive (as
  alternative to view/page etc.; zc.formlib)
- Conditional processing using features or
  modules as criteria


API Doc
-------

- Fantastic tool for seeing how things fit
  together
- Handy ZCML reference
- Committed to introspection API that can be
  used by other applications
- Many usability improvements
- Need a static version (3.2)

*Possible Sprint Task!*


Cataloging
----------

- int ids (utility)
- Basic catalog
- TextIndex NG
- Martijn's query work


Deprecation
-----------

- Began putting new deprecation policy into
  practice
- Many APIs to aid generation of warnings
  (zope.deprecation)
- Need more feedback earlier! People need to
  come out of the closet!


++debug++
---------

- source – See where things came from
- tal – leave tal attributes in output
- error – Get error tracebacks


Other
-----

- Sessions
- Preferences
- zopectl debug
- sources
- better containment constraints – but still not
  good enough
- Better date formatting; support for timezones
- Better build system that supports 3rd party
  packaging


Time based releases
-------------------

- Starting with Zope 2.9,Zope 3.2,ZODB 3.6
- Every 6 months,June and December
- Starting December 2005
- Feature freeze November 1!
- Zope 2.9 to include Zope 3.2
- Python 2.4 required in Dec 2005 releases
- Maybe simpler naming scheme in future


Zope 3.2
--------

Many new features!

Whatever is ready!


New server architecture
-----------------------

- WSGI (better method)
- Twisted integration
- Better streaming (via publisher results)
- Beginning to get out of the server business
- Implement HTTP sub-protocol selection
  using component architecture (?)

*Possible Sprint Task!*


Publisher
---------

- Iteration rather than write method
- Greater use of events in publication (?)
- Post-processing – May allow better
  separation of concerns for page production
  (?)


Better XML integration
----------------------

- I want at least ubiquitous XSLT and XPATH
- Want lxml – if the requirement is not too
  burdensome


Testing
-------

- Great progress with Selenium

  + Zope 2 projects led the way!
- Selenium integration in Zope 3 (?)
- New test runner

  + Layers provide better test separation
  + Better foundation for future testing features
- Test Browser
- Test Recorder (not in core)


UI definition from ZCML to Python
---------------------------------

- ZCML is a good configuration language – It
  is not a good definition language
- formlib provides far more Pythonic and
  flexible forms
- zope.formlib.page suggests defining
  pages in Python too


Other
-----

- Blobs (?)
- External Editor (Kupu)
- Finish WebDAV (? Please!)
- Messages
- Better widget APIs (in progress)

*Possible Sprint Task!(WebDAV)*


Looking forward
---------------

- Zope 2 to Zope 3 transition

  + Maybe someday, Zope 2 and Zope 3 will only be
    different configurations
- Better page composition
- Content Management
- Better definition of “core”


Better page composition
-----------------------

- METAL page macros haven't worked well
- Non-template-based page composition
  (ala CPS skins)?
- Pipelines? (or similar schemes)
- Viewlets/resource library
- AJAX?
- Push models


Better definition of “core”
---------------------------

- Zope 3 is mature enough to define core and
  non-core
- Bobo versus the object file system

**Zope 3 suffers an dent ty crisis!**


Content management
------------------

- Zope 3 provides an opportunity for greater
  collaboration
- Z3ECM
- Tiks
- Goldegg


Through-the-web development
---------------------------

- Still needed (IMO)
- Scripting
- Prototyping

  + Fast turn around
  + Conversion to packages


Possible Sprint Task Summary
----------------------------

- Static API doc
- Twisted Integration
- HTTP sub-protocol via CA
- Finish WebDAV
- Implement Object Introspector
- Implement Developer Mode
- Container views reimplementation
- Password Managers
- zope3.org collaboration Web site