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Application servers and ZOPE An overview by many authors: T.Tammet, P.Browning, K.Birch. C.Petrelli…

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Presentation on theme: "Application servers and ZOPE An overview by many authors: T.Tammet, P.Browning, K.Birch. C.Petrelli…"— Presentation transcript:

1 Application servers and ZOPE An overview by many authors: T.Tammet, P.Browning, K.Birch. C.Petrelli…

2 Plain cgi vs server Cgi program: started, runs, stops. Ordinary command-line program. Server program: runs all the time, day after day. Server program is used by client programs which send connection requests to a port. Server listens to requests, typically creates a new thread for each, answers.

3 Plain CGI vs application server Plain CGI architecture: Browser http url http server Just file? Program? Get file from the file system Run program on the server

4 Application server Possible app server architecture: Browser http url http server External databases Files in file system External programs App server Programs in app server databases In app server Middleware

5 App server 1 Essentially, application servers offer an integrated Web development platform that allow connection and management of a variety of enterprise resources such as Web servers, databases, and legacy application systems.

6 App server 2 Characteristic of an application server is a three-tiered architecture with an application's development and deployment layer between the client and backend of legacy systems. The application server provides a developer with a set of common otools and services that most applications need, allowing a new level of integration among components.

7 App server 3 Application servers can link multiple systems and applications over diverse hardware and operating systems. Some application servers provide an integrated development environment. This can eliminate the need for multiple tools or code conversion, but it may not allow you to use other tools that you've used previously. Application servers can take advantage of reusable modular component models such as CORBA, COM/DCOM, IIOP, or EJB (Enterprise JavaBeans). This means you won't have to reinvent the wheel over and over again. Application servers provide access to a variety of databases, either through direct support (i.e., SAP, Notes, CICS, etc.), or standardized interfaces (i.e., JDBC, ODBC, etc.).

8 App server 4 With features such as load balancing and pooling and caching, application servers can give you more control over how applications run. Application servers provide better reliability using using cluster fail- over, auto-detect and auto-restart, and multiple object instances to insure prompt response to client requests. Application servers usually provide numerous management tools including remote and local application management, prototype testing (for use prior to deployment), and system monitoring. Security features such as authentication, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), certificates, access rights, and encryption can be used and integrated by application servers with operating systems and directory services. Application servers can allow database-intensive business logic to perform better, lowering network traffic and improving access performance.

9 CMS Content management system. Goal: publish and edit web pages EASILY by a workgroup (not just ftp ….) Example cases: newspaper www systems,news and discussion sites, portals, … Use case: a large site which is changed fairly often.

10 What is a CMS? (from Ed Ort, see Rezourzes) “a CMS is a concept and not a product” Lowndes, pers. comm.

11 N.B. Only a selection of features is shown in the outer shell (from Browning & Lowndes, 2001 in. prep.) CMS Feature Onion

12 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?

13 Zope - what is it? Middleware ++ Server Unix, NT or Mac (MacOS X) An object database that thinks it’s a filesystem Can be entirely browser-driven Best “done” rather than described

14 Zope - For Transparency of publishing (Web forms, ftp, http put, WebDAV) A growing number of drop-in objects (ODBC, Oracle, MySQL, Confera, Squishdot) Open source Community

15 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 RDBMS File System

16 Demo Management screens Zope - a Swiss Army Knife for the Web? examplesZope - a Swiss Army Knife for the Web WorldPilot - a third-party ProductWorldPilot

17 What does Zope compete with? ACS - ArsDigita Community System (TCL) Enhydra (Java) Type3 (PHP) Mason (Perl) Coldfusion MS Site Server (IIS, ASP, …) Among many, many (> 80) others ….

18 Where does Zope sit in the Application Server/CMS landscape? (The descent of WebMan?) Easing the Webmaster bottleneck Complexity of applications Zope Enhydra TeamSite Spectra Apache & File System FilemakerPro Active Server Pages ColdFusion Perl & CGI Zope suited to lightweight solutions too

19 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

20 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

21 Is Zope a CMS? I Content Integration and Versioning Workflow Application User Management User Interface Data Repository Deployment

22 Is Zope a CMS? II Content Integration and Versioning Workflow CONTENT INTEGRATION AND VERSIONING Core SQLMethods, Search Interface, Undo, Version Products LocalFS, ZODBCDA, ZOracleDA, ZMySQLDA, ZopeLDAP, XMLDocument Utilities load_site.py WORKFLOW Products Portal ToolKit (PTK)

23 Is Zope a CMS? II Content Integration and Versioning Workflow DEPLOYMENT Core ZEO Products SiteAccess, CacheManager, Xron Utilities ReportLab HowTos Running Zope off CD ROM, Build a WAP site with Zope APPLICATIONS Core DTML, Zcatalog, External Methods, MailHost Products PythonMethods, PerlMethods, SQLSession, FSSession, ZUBB, Squishdot, Site Summary, Zwiki, WorldPilot, zCommerce USER INTERFACE Core TTW Authoring & Management Utilities HS Extensions, RadioUserland, ZopeStud USER MANAGEMENT Core UserFolder, Users who have users who have users, Roles, Fine-grained permissions Products LoginManager, Membership, smbUserFolder, ZopeLDAP, mysqlUserFolder DATA REPOSITORY Core Data.fs (ZODB - a transactional object database that thinks it’s a file system), ZEO Products OracleStorage, BerkeleyStorage, CompressedStorage

24 What is Zope? Promo answer: Zope is the leading Open Source application server, specializing in interactive content such as portals and content management systems. Mature system, based on many years of work in application servers

25 What is inside Zope? A Web server built in. A Web based interface An object database Relational database integration Scripting language support

26 Advantages: Customer Zope doesn’t just deliver pages to the customer, it provides the ability to engage in interactive, customized content. URLs that “Mom” can understand

27 Advantages: Content Managers Everything is through-the-web Choose your weapon Content re-use, order prevails over chaos Flexible searching

28 Advantages: Developers Modular architecture Customizable searching Rich object model Integrated object database Extensible security Integration of external data

29 Advantages: Business Keeping control. –Your website is the heart-beat of your electronic presence. If your site isn’t in business, you aren’t in business. –Unfortunately, the most important thing in the world to your technology vendor is their business plan, not yours. –Source code, right to fix, right to modify.

30 Advantages: Business Price Advantage –Zope’s commercial competitors operate on a simple principal: account control. Everything is structured to make you pay a lot and pay repeatedly. –Competitive software can cost up to $1M just for the licenses, often $100K+ just to get started. Moreover, these other alternatives cash in on hidden charges, such as yearly transaction fees. –Zope is “free of charge.” Money saved on license feeds can be applied to actually getting a solution, rather than a piece of software.

31 Simple Manageable code base –~88,000 lines of Python –~45,000 lines of C For comparison PHP4 is ~150K lines of C code Built on core Python 1.5.2 distribution Python has been described best as “executable pseudo-code.”

32 Separation of Roles Robust security expression Differentiation between users, roles and permissions Users may have roles only in a “local” context. This is granular to the object level.

33 Delegation of Control Content managers control content Developers control logic Administrators control server You can structure control any way you desire

34 Integrated Environment Object management through-the-web Simple interface Provides a unified OO interface to both Zope data as well as legacy information

35 True Web Objects Conversion of URLs to objects Ability to hide the low-level transport (HTTP) from the developer Develop reusable objects which present themselves via multiple methods

36 Passionate Community Over 1,500 members of the mailing lists Lists have reached saturation point in volume For reference, 2500/month = over 80/day

37 Scalability > 1,000,000 hits/day on commodity hardware Compares favorably with other application servers Tries to play friendly with caching Commercial solutions for high-scale situations (Zope Enterprise Option)

38 Architecture

39 Zope Management Model Zope is designed to be managed “through the web” A few operations (e.g. adding products) require disk access Content is not “strewn” around the file system

40 Zope Management Interface Two-paned UI like Windows Explorer –Navigator (on the left) –Workspace (on the right) Views along top HTML 3.2 with/some JavaScript Available at: http://server.com/.../manage

41 Roles for Managing Zope Sneak peek to security: –Using Zope management interfaces requires that the user authenticate as a user with the Manager role –Immediately following installation there is one (1) user defined in the access file in the Zope home directory –By definition this user has all roles

42 Zope Management Interface Logging In –Authentication initially controlled with username and password stored in access file –access file stored in the root of Zope installation –format superuser:{alg}password Superuser has all roles!

43 Authenticating to /manage Accessing the /manage interfaces will challenge the user or a password using Basic Authentication –Password is in clear text –Can be used in conjunction with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for more security Although you don’t type it in each time, login is transmitted on each request

44 Logging In Basic authentication dialog box:

45 Zope Management Interface Navigator Workspace

46 Zope UI Structure Frames-based interface –Navigator — Structure (i.e., the tree) –Workspace — Contents (i.e, the leaves)

47 Zope Management Navigator Hierarchy of folders Root folder name determined at installation –Could be /, /Zope, /anything_you_want

48 Zope Management Workspace Top of the frame offers one or more views behind a corresponding tab Displayed tabs vary depending on what you are browsing (e.g., document, folder, etc.)

49 Zope Management Workspace For folders: –Contents –Properties –Import/Export –Security –Undo –Find –Help

50 Folder Properties Properties are attributes of a folder Useful for –Content management –App development Data types –string, boolean, date, float, int, lines, long, etc.

51 Folder Import/Export Move folders –across Zope instances –backups –product publishing Import must be done from the file system ($ZOPE_HOME/import)

52 Import & Export

53 Folder Security Manage existing role assignments Create new role definitions New roles are then available for assignment to users below the definition!

54 Folder Security Note that each product introduces its own security behaviors that are unique to its function Example –Specific ZSQL Methods security

55 Folder Security

56 Folder Undo Exposes transactions since last database pack Stores object, method, user and time Undo will not violate object integrity

57 Folder Find Where did I use that property? What have I tinkered with since yesterday? Expensive

58 Adding Things The Available Objects –Contains available objects that can be added in the current context. –Contents of the list depend on what is installed!

59 Adding Things The URL Structure –Objects that are added are directly addressable with the URL http://server.com/US/Mktg/NewFolder which is is not on a file system! –What is the significance of this?

60 Adding Things Selecting an object to add displays an initial configuration screen Contents of this screen vary with the kind of object being added Examples… –Image, SMTPHost, ZSQL Method

61 Cut, Copy, Paste, Rename Often it is useful to re-factor a Zope layout Facilitated by Cut, Copy, Paste and Rename Available from the Workspace Cut not applied until subsequent Paste!

62 Exporting Objects Very useful for moving Zope applications and/or data Click the Export link or the Export button.fexp file downloaded or saved to server file system

63 Exporting & Inporting Objects

64 Importing Objects The export file must be in import directory Avoid import name collisions

65 The Control Panel An important Zope artifact Provides a through-the-web UI for database manipulation –location –pack Exposes the notion of a levered product

66 Packing the Database The ZODB is a logging database Previous versions of objects are kept around until the database is packed Packing reduces the size of the database, but also eliminates the opportunity to perform Undo operations

67 The Zope Process Starting, Stopping –When –Why

68 User Databases When you provide a username and password, where does Zope look? Every Zope Folder can contain a single database called a User Folder

69 User Databases A User Folder will use one of several available “databases” for authentication and authorization information Examples: –UserDB (from an RDBMS) –LDAP –IMAPUserFolder –etcUserFolder (e.g., /etc/passwd)

70 Authorization Once we find out who you are, what level of privilege do you have? Your roles define your privilege in the site

71 Managing Users Users are Zope objects Information about users can come from Zope or foreign systems Zope interface allows easy add/edit/delete

72 Customizing Authentication It’s possible to customize authentication (e.g., with UserDB) This can be extremely powerful

73 Hierarchical Security Users defined in a higher folder exist in subfolders Opposite is not true Allows safe delegation of control Managers of sub-folders can easily add their own users

74 Creating & Managing Web Content

75 Key Points Delegating management Centralizing content Content reuse URLs map to objects Dynamic everything

76 What Is Content? Zope database is organized like a file system Folder and contents have direct URLs Content can be many things: –Static content like HTML documents, images, and movies –Dynamic content threaded discussions –External content like relational databases, directory servers, or email servers

77 Zope Content Breakthrough Arcane SQL and object references replaced by intuitive URLs Familiar interface patterned after file managers Powerful objects make information more useful All content is dynamic Framework makes content predictable

78 Tracing A Request Before managing Zope’s content, review how Zope objects live on the web What happens when you do: http://US/Sales/manage_addFolder?id=Accounting

79 Tracing A Request Zope opens the /US/ folder and grabs the Sales object Zope opens the Sales object and grabs the manage_addFolder object http://US/Sales/manage_addFolder?id=Accounting

80 Tracing A Request manage_addFolder is a method Zope grabs the method and finds out what it needs to be given as arguments Zope finds these arguments (id) and passes them in Zope returns the results of the method

81 Tracing A Request If a URL contains an object that can’t be found, Zope handles it If you need to login to grab an object, Zope handles it If a needed argument is present, Zope handles it http://US/Sales/manage_addFolder?id=Accounting

82 Tracing A Request The Zope management screens automate all of this Point and click forms interface

83 Scenario ZACME is forming an Accounting division in its US region. The Accounting department will be mostly similar to the others and will manage some of its content.

84 Creating Content Objects are added through methods on a folder Special folders (e.g. discussions) have special content that can be added Kinds of objects (classes) define the form used when adding

85 Adding Accounting

86 Accounting Home Page Go to Accounting folder Add and Edit a DTML Method called index_html

87 Accounting Home Page

88 What Happened? index_html is a special document Two new objects in the database The following URL now works: http://server.com/US/Accounting/

89 Reusing Content How can we centralize the name of the division? We have a Title property on the Folder… How can we refer to that in our pages?

90 Adding DTML Document Template Markup Language (DTML) Allows simple programming to be added to documents

91 Using title Edit the index_html object

92 What Happened? The index_html object was retrieved and processed by Zope It asked for a property called title A DTML Method object gets its properties from its folder Zope inserted the folder’s title into index_html

93 Properties Properties help reuse information across content Objects (folders, documents, images, etc.) can have properties assigned to them Managed with the simple Zope GUI Properties can be strings, integers, sequences, etc.

94 Adding A Property Create a property of the Accounting folder called contact_email

95 Use Property In Home Page Add to index_html

96 Roles and Permissions Security on content can be changed with a point-and-click interface Some kinds of content (e.g. discussions) have extra options for the special things they do (permissions) These operations can be limited to certain kinds of users (roles)

97 Centralizing Content Web sites are organized hierarchically –http://server.com:8080/US/Sales/ Some information is specific to Sales Some is general to US or even ZACME

98 Acquisition Zope lets you “move” content up a URL to a higher folder Objects lower down then just ask for the content Zope uses acquisition to look at all the parents for the content

99 Example: webmaster Property ZACME has a webmaster that administers all sites Her email address is shared across all department and division pages

100 Add webmaster Property Add property to top folder

101 Use webmaster Property All objects below can now “acquire” the webmaster property US/Accounting/index_html just “asks” for webmaster

102 Use webmaster Property

103 How Does Acquisition Work? First, acquisition is very unique and thus very tough to explain OO is about “is-a” and “in-a” relationships A Ford “is-a” Car but a Door is “in-a” Ford Inheritance provides “is-a” Zope provides “in-a”

104 Overriding Acquisition What if Accounting hired its own webmaster? Just define a webmaster property on the Accounting folder Acquisition will pick the lower one up first


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