[Zope] Management of user docs (Word)

[Flynt]

Marcel Mar=E9 wrote:
> =

> Newbie question:
> =

> I'm trying to get a grip on Zope. I'm looking for a workgroup collabora=
tion
> tool (forums, document management etc.). The problem I'm facing is: mos=
t
> users have their information in external documents like Microsoft Word =
or
> Excel document. These are not "understood" by the Zope object database =
I
> guess. So what is the best way to handle these?
> =

> TIA
> =

> Marcel
>

Hi Marcel

What do you mean by: "...Microsoft Word or Excel document. These are not
"understood" by the Zope object database..." ???

You can store them as files in the ZODB. And serve them to users
via the web. Or you can leave them in the filesysystem, let them be
administrated (uploaded) through the web and served to the users through
the web.
http://www.zope.org/Members/jfarr/Products/LocalFS
http://www.zope.org/Members/MacGregor/ExtFile

Files are served with relevant MIME headers as in other webservers. So
you have the same story for downloading Microsoft documents from Zope as
from any other webserver (so the point is the browser configuration: you
have got to have your helpers configured in the browser).

Do you have special purposes in your mind ? Do you think about indexing
?

There is now even a document library in developement which deals with
indexing of Microsoft documents. Have a look at:
http://www.zope.org/Members/Kaivo/DocumentLibrary/0.1-ReleaseNews

Maybe, you want also have a look on the content management framework
(CMF):
http://cmf.zope.org

Or a news forum on Zope:
http://www.squishdot.org/



HTH

--Flynt--