Web application development with Zope

Jure Cerjak (2010) Web application development with Zope. EngD thesis.

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Abstract

A web application framework is designed to support the development of dynamic websites, Web applications and Web services. There are many already established platforms to choose from. Recent years have witnessed an increasing number of web application frameworks based on dynamic programming languages such as Python and Ruby. In my thesis I presented Zope, which is relatively unknown among developers despite the maturity of the platform and the fact that it offers some interesting features. It is based on Python and allows for the development of flexible and scalable web systems in the form of loosely coupled components. An interesting feature is also the use of object database ZODB. I will show a practical example of the development with the Grok framework, which uses most of the components of the Zope platform while taking into account modern agile approaches. In the introduction I describe the characteristics of web application frameworks and frameworks in general. This is followed by an overview and a brief description of the main components of the Zope platform.The second section features a more detailed presentation of the Zope component architecture and object database ZODB. Description of the platform is followed by a presentation of the development cycle using the chosen framework. I present the development of a prototype application intended to assist in organizing events for recreational sports teams. In the concluding section of my paper I emphasize the strenghts and weaknesses of the Zope platform, which came to my attention during the development, and make some suggestions for improving the application prototype.

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