[ZDP] zope-wiki note (was RE: ZOPE Wiki and Ward Cunningham...)

Simon Michael simon@joyful.com
20 Aug 1999 10:32:11 -0700


Jim, is this what you need ? NB I excerpted your original mail on the
web version.

Anyone with greater insight, please feel free to jump in and rewrite -
I welcome it. Send comments here or edit the web page directly.

Regards - Simon

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This note, with links, is best viewed at
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(definitions below)

'''Wiki and Zope'''

I'd like to see the wiki concept implemented in Zope. 
Each has unique features and their combination would be valuable.
	* Wiki is very good at allowing one or many people to develop hypertext content, with speed and simplicity.
	* Zope is very good at allowing many people to build object-based web applications, talking to databases, transactions, fine-grained access control, etc. It is powerful; complex yet has a clean design.


'''Design thoughts'''

There are various ways a wiki might be implemented in zope.
One could:

	1. implement a wiki clone in zope, identical from the user's viewpoint. This would benefit from zope features like undo, without extra effort.
	2. explore how a wiki can leverage zope features, like: 
		* DTML (dynamic content) and method/property acquisition
		* other markup formats - structured text, XML, DTML
		* FTP and webDAV access
		* access control

See ZopeWikiRecentMail for a little more context. I have started
groping towards an implementation but it will take some time since I
am (re)learning zope. Anthony Pfunder has expressed interest in coding
a prototype. Other efforts in this area are most welcome!


'''Definitions'''

WikiWikiWeb is the notion of trivially-editable collaborative
hypertext, which has proven to be extremely effective. 
( http://c2.com/cgi/wiki )

ZoPe is an open-source web object publishing platform, written in
Python, which is going from strength to strength and exciting a lot of
developers. ( http://zope.org )

Python is the very popular object-oriented "scripting" language 
( http://python.org , http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?PythonLanguage )

See ZopeZDP for links to more Zope-related information.