[Zope] product management question

[Brian Lloyd]

> Why does the "Distribution" tab dissapear when a Product is 
> "installed"?
> (I think) This makes it difficult to manage products-- if I am working
> on a project and I want to move it to another Zope 
> installation and then
> continue to work on it and distribute it again, how can I do this when
> the Distribution tab is not available? Can I just tar.gz what's in my
> Products directory? Or do I have to use the distibution tab?

"Installed" products are products that are written purely in
Python - they are either included with Zope or are packaged
as a tgz file that installs a package into lib/python/Products.

"Through the web" products are built throught the web and are stored 
in the Zope database.

To move an "installed" product from site to site, you just copy the
product distribution (.tgz file ) to the new site and unpack it.
Because "installed" products have no state stored in the Zope ODB,
they do not have a distribution tab. "Through the web" products
allow you to create a product distribution (tgz file) that, once
installed, brings the persistent state of the product into the
ODB at restart when you install it on a different site. The
"distribution" tab basically creates an installable snapshot
of your through-the-web product.

Hope this helps!


Brian Lloyd        brian@digicool.com
Software Engineer  540.371.6909              
Digital Creations  http://www.digicool.com