[Zope] Programmatically authenticating users?

[Jens Vagelpohl]

> I don't know a tremendous amount about how user authentication works
> in Zope, but my assumption is that when you login, say by going to
> /manage, it returns a cookie of some sort that marks you as
> authenticated and contains an id to identify who you are authenticated
> as. How would I provide this functionality in a script of my own
> making?

The standard Zope user folder uses HTTP Basic Authentication and no 
cookies. You cannot "wrap" this in a script as you propose, it is not 
possible.

You should select a different user folder (see zope.org) that uses 
cookies or use a user folder in conjunction with the CookieCrumbler 
product to add the cookie functionality. Then you can have regular 
login pages. Some of the user folders allow you to have additional data 
on the user as well.

jens