Buy or build a CMS?Where does Zope fit in?

Paul BrowningInformation Strategy Co-ordinator

University of Bristolpaul.browning@bristol.ac.uk

Loadza Questionz

• What is a CMS?

• What is Zope?

• What are the reasons not to use Zope?

• Is Zope a CMS?

• What has UoB been doing with a CMS?

• Who is doing ztuff in UK HE?

• Is a VLE/MLE a special case of a CMS?

The short anzwerz

• What is a CMS? A way of staying sane• What is Zope? A sigmoidal learning cliff• What are the reasons not to use Zope?

Some of these are misconceptions• Is Zope a CMS? Zope + PTK certainly is• What has UoB been doing with a CMS?

IRIS, DataHub & UBIS• Is a VLE/MLE a special case of a CMS? I think so• Who is doing interesting ztuff in UK HE?

UWCM & Newcastle

What is a CMS?

(from Ed Ort, see Rezourzes)

“a CMS is a concept and not a product” Lowndes, pers. comm.

N.B. Only a selection of features is shown in the outer shell

(from Browning & Lowndes, 2001 in. prep.)

CMS Feature Onion

Top 6 (out of 41!) features @ IWMW2000

• Self-service authoring/frictionless publishing for non-technical content providers

• Workflow management – submit, review, approve, archive • Integration with existing data/databases AND user

authentication systems • Roles based security

• Flexible output – author once, publish in many formats

• Metadata management

Does the “orthodox” Web deliver these?

What is Zope?

• A Python Web Application Server • A transactional object database that thinks it’s a file system• It has many elements of a CMS ...•… and quite a lot more besides

Web Client

XML-RPC

WebDAV

FTP Client

Web Server

Z Server

Zope Core

ZODB

Z Classes

Products

RDBMSFile

System

Demo

• Management screens• Zope - a Swiss Army Knife for the Web?

examples

• WorldPilot - a third-party Product

What does Zope compete with?

• ACS - ArsDigita Community System (TCL)

• Enhydra (Java)

• Type3 (PHP)

• Mason (Perl)

Among many, many (> 80) others ….

What are the reasons not to use Zope?

• I need to use Apache

• I have to script in DTML

• I have to author in a browser

• I have to put all my content in one file

• The documentation is poor

• There is no commercial support

• You can’t recruit Python programmers

• It is not Java

What are the reasons not to use Zope?

• I need to use Apache You can• I have to script in DTML Use Python or Perl• I have to author in a browser HomeSite,

emacs, BBEdit, Word, etc• I have to put all my content in one file You don’t• The documentation is poor It’s eclectic!• There is no commercial support DC and others• You can’t recruit Python programmers Maybe• It is not Java Correct

Is Zope a CMS? I

Content Integration

and Versioning

Workflow

Application

User Management

User Interface

DataRepository

Deployment

Is Zope a CMS? II

Content Integration

and Versioning

Workflow

CONTENT INTEGRATION AND VERSIONINGCore SQLMethods, Search Interface, Undo, VersionProducts LocalFS, ZODBCDA, ZOracleDA, ZMySQLDA,

ZopeLDAP, XMLDocument Utilities load_site.py

WORKFLOWProducts Portal ToolKit (PTK)

Is Zope a CMS? II

Content Integration

and Versioning

Workflow

DEPLOYMENTCore ZEOProducts SiteAccess, CacheManager, XronUtilities ReportLab HowTos Running Zope off CD ROM, Build a WAP site with Zope

APPLICATIONSCore DTML, Zcatalog, External Methods, MailHostProducts PythonMethods, PerlMethods, SQLSession, FSSession, ZUBB, Squishdot, Site Summary, Zwiki, WorldPilot, zCommerce

USER INTERFACECore TTW Authoring & ManagementUtilities HS Extensions, RadioUserland, ZopeStud

USER MANAGEMENTCore UserFolder, Users who have users who have users, Roles, Fine-grained permissionsProducts LoginManager, Membership, smbUserFolder, ZopeLDAP,

mysqlUserFolder

DATA REPOSITORYCore Data.fs (ZODB - a transactional object database that thinks it’s a file system), ZEOProducts OracleStorage, BerkeleyStorage, CompressedStorage

What has UoB been doing with a CMS?

• Integration Research Information System (IRIS)– secret lifebelt for RAE– longer term goal as research & enterprise portal– built using JSP-based toolkit (Zebedee)

• DataHub - a reporting database

• UBIS site (Computing Service + MIS + Library)

Demos?

• Is there time?

Who is doing ztuff in UK HE?

• Newcastle (NLE, MOFS, SST, Stage 4 Options)

• Cardiff Med School (Aspire)

• Strathclyde (Zeus, Zaphod, Zealous, Zoetrope )

• Imperial College (LoginManager)

• Liverpool?

• Salford?

• Oxford Brookes?

Don’t overlook European initiatives - see Rezourcez

Is a VLE/MLE a special case of a CMS?

Student Record System

Quality Process

Business Systems Other Agencies Other Colleges

Registers

Off-line Learning

LearningResourcesCurriculumMapping

Assessment

Communication

Delivery

Tutor Support

Tracking

Virtual Learning Environment

Managed Learning Environment

(from JISC News, Winter 2000)

Some Concluzionz I

• Zope has a sigmoidal learning cliff

• Zope is glueware, highly modular and extensible, becoming more language neutral

• Zope has a loyal and helpful community

• Zope has many elements of a CMS

• A basic workflow is available in the PTK

• The PTK is not quite there yet but DC say it is an important part of the roadmap

• You can build more customised/sophisticated workflow

Some Concluzionz II

• Second generation VLEs/MLEs will be constructed in tools like Zope

• Don’t just buy a CMS (or VLE/MLE) - cul-de-sac

• Build (or buy-and-build) - keep options open

• Forming consortia would be a smart idea

• If you know all the answers then apply for the KCL@£38k job ….

Where does Zope sit in the Application Server/CMS landscape?

(The descent of WebMan?)

Easing the Webmaster bottleneck

Complexity of applications

ZopeEnhydraTeamSiteSpectra

Apache & File System

FilemakerProActive Server PagesColdFusionPerl & CGI

Zope suited to lightweight solutions too

Some Rezourzes

• The last three slides refused to Save As HTML so I put them here.