[Zope] can I eliminate the data.fs file in favor of an relational database?

Kevin Dangoor kid@kendermedia.com
Wed, 8 Mar 2000 13:45:34 -0500


----- Original Message -----
From: <Ron_Dagostino@SSGA.COM>
To: <zope@zope.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2000 12:59 PM
Subject: [Zope] can I eliminate the data.fs file in favor of an relational
database?


> I just installed Zope (on NT) and would like to have reasonable
> backup/recovery options.  One way to do this is to just make a copy of the
> data.fs file in the var directory, but I'm concerned that this file may
not
> be in a consistent state when it gets copied somewhere.  Should I worry
> about this?

Nope. The Data.fs file is simply appended to when things change, and it is
quite safe to just copy the file over.

> I'm thinking it would be better to eliminate this file in favor of an
> Oracle or Sybase database (I have access to both).  Can I do this?  If it
> is possible, would I want to do it?  If I should want to do it, how do I
do
> it?  I've spent a few hours searching the documentation, but this has only
> convinced me that it may be possible -- I've been unable to find a
> definitive answer.

It *can* be done, but you would need to write your own ZODB Storage
mechanism for it. Right now, there are a few Storages available. FileStorage
is the most common (the one that works with Data.fs). There is also
CompressedStorage and BerkeleyStorage. No one has written a storage for an
RDBMS yet, but it should be possible.

Would you want to do it? Probably not. The FileSystem storage is pretty
solid. About the only thing you'll get from the RDBMS storage is that you
wouldn't have a file that keeps growing with every transaction and needs to
be packed from time to time.

Kevin