Suggestion for Web App

[Magnus Lycka]

Harlin Seritt wrote:
> I want to make a recommendation to a group of internal customers where
> I work concerning a Python web framework. They are seeking to build a
> portal that can handle around 5000 total users  but probably no more
> than 100-200 simultaneous users. This is supposed to serve mainly
> static content - the content will hold references, tutorials and
> examples for different technologies, a forum (similar probably to
> phpbb) and podcasts (rss and mp3 files). Also I believe it will
> definitely need a decent DB server for this.
> 
> They have some other suggestions ranging from Websphere/JSP's to PHP. I
> personally don't think the PHP will scale well for growth and I also
> think that using Java/JSPs will be too slow for this sort of thing.

There are certainly big PHP sites (Wikipedia?) and I'm not sure
Python is faster than Java/JSP (given enough memory on the server).
I'd use Python too, but that's more due to maintainablility and
rapid development than performance.

> I normally work as system and application admin and use Python in a
> number of ways to get the job done. Naturally, I am naturally inclined
> to suggest something that uses Python or something "Pythonic". I wanted
> to suggest Zope but there are also other ones I'm thinking of as well
> like CherryPy and Karrigell. Which one of these (or other ones you guys
> know of) would do the best job in this situation?

I never felt Zope was very pythonic... You certainly get a lot out
of the box with Zope, but there seems to be a big learning curve as
soon as you go beyond the most obvious things. Knowing Python won't
mean that you feel at home in Zope. Zope 3 seems to improve things,
but almost all existing Zope products today are Zope 2 thingies, so
it seems a year early or so to jump onto the Zope 3 train if you don't
want a lot of work.

It seems the popular tool kits these days are Django and Turbo Gears.
I have heard a lot of good things about both. I think both have video
tutorials and other introduction docs that are easy to digest.

> Also do you guys know if MySQL would work with this or should they use
> something more robust like DB2 (IBM shop)?

Typically, I warn people about MySQL, since it's not very mature in
the role as a full RDBMS, but it's been very successful for use as
container for web site content. This role, with lots of simple reads,
no complex transactions and relatively few updates is just where
MySQL shines. Don't use it for mission critical OLTP applications
such as booking or accounting systems though. I think MySQL is robust.