[Zope] Does Zope stack up as a portal?

Kevin Carlson khcarlso@bellsouth.net
Tue, 17 Dec 2002 14:26:09 -0500


Kyler,

Just to add some additional thoughts on Zope...

Prior to working with Zope/CMF I worked with three other Portal products:
Plumtree, Epicentric, and Intraspect.  Each of these were more usable out of
the box, but a lot less flexible than Zope/CMF and therefore less usable in
the long term.  I would pick Zope/CMF over any of the other products now
that I have made a moderate ascent of the learning curve.

One thing to keep in mind about CMF is that what you get out of the box is
essentially a large example, IMHO.  When we set out to build a portal on top
of CMF, the last thing I wanted to do was retrofit the existing skins with a
new look and new functionality.  It is better to understand the architecture
of CMF and then build skins that utilize that toolset.

Plone is definitely an alternative as are some of the others you have seen
mentioned in this thread.  But if you want to use CMF, first understand the
underlying tools and what they help you accomplish -- then build your
portal.

Another comment on the other products:  Yes, they are more usable out of the
box.  But by the time we were done gathering requirements for a portal based
on any of these products, we were left with a massive customization job
anyway.  Because of this, I'd much rather begin with a product that has
flexibility in mind than a product that offers quick implementation at the
expense of long-term flexibility.

Kevin

-----Original Message-----
From: zope-admin@zope.org [mailto:zope-admin@zope.org]On Behalf Of Kyler
Laird
Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2002 12:49 PM
To: zope@zope.org
Subject: [Zope] Does Zope stack up as a portal?


This is going to be a horribly-formed request, but I'm looking for some
guidance on evaluating a product being pitched.  The product is UNICON
Academus.
	http://www.unicon.net/academus/products/overview.html

It's based on uPortal
	http://mis105.mis.udel.edu/ja-sig/uportal/
a "free, sharable portal under development by institutions of higher-
education."  UNICON's offerings appear to be closed and, at least for
the authoring tool, MS Windows-only.

I want Free tools.  uPortal is better than something like Blackboard,
but it still has some severe limitations due to its licensing.  I'm
wondering if I can confidently say that Zope can readily perform the
same functions.

I like using Zope for most everything these days, but every time I go
to battle against CMF, I come away ready to continue using other
methods for awhile.  I suspect that CMF is what I would need to use to
get uPortal/Academus-type functionality without starting from scratch.

So...any opinions?  I'm looking for comments like "Zope can't touch
Academus without a *lot* of work" or "Oh, yeah, just fight through CMF
and you're almost there."  Specifics would be great, but I'll be happy
just to get some insight.  (If there's something besides CMF that can
handle this role, I'll be especially interested.)

Of course, I'd also be happy to receive offers to provide Academus-like
functionality in Zope using Free software for a price on the order of
that of Academus.  (I don't know how much they charge yet, but I will
soon.)

Thank you.

--kyler


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