Zope

Zope is a free, Open Source(tm) web application platform used for building high-performance, dynamic web sites.

Installation Instructions

This is quite a long process. The objective is to use Zope with the Zeus Web Server instead of Medusa. We will use the FastCGI implementation as this is the fastest and most flexible way to use Zope with Zeus.

1. Install Zope as normal. This usually involves calling the "install" script with flags. Please follow the Zope install instructions and also refer to doc/WEBSERVER.txt in the Zope distribution for background information.

2. Change the script "start" as below (changing details where appropriate):

   #! /bin/sh
    
   reldir=`dirname $0`
   PYTHONHOME=`cd $reldir; pwd`
   export PYTHONHOME
   exec /usr/bin/python \
     $PYTHONHOME/z2.py -F 8889 \
        -w - -f - \
        -D "$@"

   This starts Zope with FastCGI, disables the internal Medusa web server and FTP server, and puts Zope into debug mode (so that errors are displayed on the console).

   Later, you can remove the -D "$@" flag to allow Zope to detach from the terminal.

3. Run the "start" script, and make sure it starts without any errors. Common problems include not having the right permissions particularly, or possibly that there is no FastCGI library installed or the port is already in use.

   Once Zope is running successfully, you will see something similar to this on the terminal:

   ------
   2001-04-19T15:36:11 INFO(0) ZServer FastCGI Server (V1.0) started at Thu Apr
    19 11:36:11 2001
   IP          :
   Port        : 8889
   Socket path : None

4. Using the Zeus Administration Server, go to the FastCGI configuration page, located within API Support on the Configuration Menu bar. Add a mapping for the docroot path in the Configuring FastCGI Remote Responders section mapping "/zope" to "localhost:8889".

   Note: you do not have to use port 8889, but these instructions assume you have done so.

5. You now need to enable a global htaccess directive, to allow authorization variables to be passed to Zope. To do this, create a file called "global.htaccess" somewhere outside your docroot:

   <Location /zope/>
   PassEnvAuthorization on
   </Location>

   Again, if you're not using /zope then this will need modifiying appropriately.

6. Go to the htaccess Support configuration page, located under Access in the Configuration Menu bar. Enable htaccess functionality and enter the full path to this file in the global htaccess box.

7. Then go to the Restricting Access page, and create a user called "admin". Add a pair of rules; one to deny access to /zope, and a second rule to allow "admin" to access /zope. This will provide Zope with access credentials once you have authenticated.

8. Once you have completed these stages, apply your changes and commit them to the Virtual Server.

9. Now visit http://servername/zope/ and you should find that Zope is running.

In summary, install Zope normally; modify the start script to use FastCGI; add a FastCGI entry to Zeus; add a path mapping to use this FastCGI handler on zope requests; add a global htaccess directive to pass authorization variables to Zope; create a user in the access page for Zope.

Finally, if you are still experiencing problems, check the permissions, as this is the most common cause of process failure. You should ensure that the whole Zope directory is owned by the user running the Zope FastCGI process.

Content Manager [Administrator] 16 December 2005 2 comments