Quick Start

• Zope Newbies
• Basic Usage
• Translations
• Open Office

Zope Newbies

If you are a zope newbie, perhaps you could start reading this introduction: "Developing database-oriented web applications using zope and zetadb".
If not, continue reading.

Basic Usage

• Create a well designed relational database (3th Normal Form or higher) in postgresql
• Within ZMI, add a "zetadb application"
• Inside the "zetadb application" object, add a "zetadb postgresql" and configure your connection
• For each table you want to manage, create a "zetadb table manager"
• In each "zetadb table manager", go to Properties tab, choose the table you want to manage and fill the fields to use in each form
• Click on the "Build Objects" button and, using database catalog information, a couple of objects will be created in order to manage your table
• You can build objects as many times you need. In each execution, non-modified object will be replaced, but modified ones aren't rebuilded. If you want to rebuild a modified object, you should previously rename o remove it
• You can add additional objects, addional items in the toolbar, or your own menus to link all "zetadb table managers". We recomend to you the use of "zetadb zpt" and "zetadb script" objects to do this (they have some advantages over basic zope objects)

Translations

• To define a string as a translatable string, use gnu _("string") notation in any place of "zetadb zpt" objects. Don't worry about syntax problems, theese strings will be replaced at render time.
• You can define some languages to be translated using "Properties" and "Locale" tabs in the "zetadb application" object. You can also extract into .po text files all the strings in your application to be translated. You will obtain a .po file for earch language, so you can distribute each .po file to each specific language translator people

OpenOffice

• To generate OpenOffice documents in your applications, add a "zetadb openoffice" document (you will need a .sxw or .sxc file)
• This file is converted into some zope objects. You can modify content.xml files adding TAL instructions in order to dynamize the content.
• When you call to your "zetadb openoffice" object URL, all its content is dynamized and the resulting OpenOffice document is then sent to the browser.