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What is Zope? (for everybody)
ZOPE stands for "Z Object Publishing Environment". Zope is one of the leading open-source application servers for content management and portals.
In short, Zope is a web publishing system. It consists of an optional web server, a middle layer which coordinates getting things into and out of the database, and an object database. It is an open-source application server especially designed for developing high-performance, dynamic web pages.
Zope, which runs on nearly all UNIX platforms and works well with Linux and Windows NT, can be used with most popular web servers or its own built-in web server.
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What is Zope? (for developers)
Zope is an object-based, open-source Web application platform. It includes Web and FTP servers and can be extended to cover other protocols such as POP3, SMTP and IMAP. The integrated object database uses the native file systems to manage its data by default but can also work with other storage managers, such as bsddb or relational databases. Data managed in external databases (Oracle, Sybase, MySQL and ODBC are supported) can also be integrated with ZOPE and according to the developers "[it] takes about twenty lines of code to add support for another database. Well, maybe thirty."
The Zope model for Web object management is the best foundation for rapid and reliable development for its flexibility, its strong support for a variety of external databases, its scriptability, its slick support for collaborative development and its compatibility with industry standards.
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What does "open source" mean?
Zope is an open source technology which means that anybody can download Zope's source code for free. This is the human-written lines of text that define a program's function. Most companies keep their source code under wraps -- that's how they maintain control of their product and derive revenue from it. But the raw guts of Zope are posted on the Web. You're even welcome to change Zope for your particular business needs.
Open sourcing has strengthened the Zope code. Like users of closed source software, Zope users are quick to point out bugs. But unlike closed-source users, they also offer solutions to these bugs, many of which get incorporated into the "official" Zope code. The better the code, the more users; the more users, the better the code.
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Why use Zope?
Zope is one of the most powerful and flexible web publishing tools available.
Zope's strength lies in application development, particularly as a tool for web content managers, developers, and information architects to produce and work with dynamic, powerful, highly functional web areas.
Zope is powerful:
Zope can help you create dynamic web applications such as portal and intranet sites quickly. Zope comes with everything you need including support for membership, search, news, guestbooks, collaborative applications and discussion archives. Its easy-to-use tools allow teams to productively and safely work together.
Zope is flexible:
Zope is highly modular and flexible: many sites that use proprietary content managers, or application servers, now complement them with Zope. Zope's parts can fill in the functionality gaps of other products because Zope was built on standard, open interfaces, allowing its parts to cooperate well with competing vendors' applications.
Zope provides top-notch access to databases and other legacy data. Zope's open support for web standards such as XML-RPC, DOM, and WebDAV allows you unparalleled flexibility and interoperability.
Zope's technology is frankly intoxicating. It's exciting to be able to "glue" together so many disparate technologies to create a dynamic, yet maintainable, Web site.
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Who develops Zope?
Zope was originally authored by Zope Corporation, a web consulting company. Their main investor, once he saw Zope, convinced Zope Corporation to open-source it. They did so in 1998, and neither they nor Zope have looked back.
As Zope is open-source, the Zope developer community is spread all over the world.
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Where can I get Zope?
You can download Zope from www.Zope.org/Products.
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Can I get support if I use Zope?
The user base for Zope has grown tenfold since it was open sourced, which means the potential market for support contracts has also grown tenfold. The Zope community is now large enough that you can easily get the support you need.
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What products does Zope compete against?
There are many other tools for building sophisticated web sites. Zope compares favorably, very favorably, with the most expensive technologies in the marketplace such as: Microsoft ASP, Microsoft .NET, Tomcat, Coldfusion, ATT Dynamo, WebLogic etc.
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How fast is Zope?
Zope is fast. It is much faster than Java Server Pages. You can support millions of page views a day, depending on the complexity of your site and your hardware.
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Who uses Zope?
Thousands of sites the world over are built with Zope. For a list of some Zope case study sites see: www.zope.org/Resources/CaseStudies.
Zope users include Verizon Wireless, Red Hat, NASA, the US Navy, France Ministry of Interior, Sonics, Linux Capital Group, IDG (Brazil), GE, Digital Garage, Verio, www.HireTechs.com, Park City Ski Area, Storm Linux, etc.
Please visit our Case Studies section to learn about a few Zope projects.
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What is a Zope product?
A Zope product is a program using Zope that out-of-the-box does something very powerful and that only requires some customization work. Zope products must be written in Python.
More about our Zope products...
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Are there any Zope books?
Yes!
 Zope Bible
by Michael Bernstein (Author), Scott Robertson (Author)
 The Zope Book
by Amos Latteier, Michel Pelletier
 Zope: Web Application Development and Content Management
by Steve Spicklemire (Editor), Kevin Friedly, Jerry Spicklemire, Kim Brand
 The Book of Zope
by Beehive
 Zope Web Application Construction Kit
by Martina Brockmann (Editor), Martina Brockmann, Sebastian Luhnsdorf, Mark Pratt, Katrin Kirchner
 Zope Developer's Handbook
by John D. Rowell
 Python Web Programming
by Steve Holden, David Beazley
 Content Management Bible
by Bob Boiko (Author)
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