[XML-SIG] Python / XML / XSLT vs. Cocoon for website server side

[Richard Johannesson]

Tom - thanks for the feedback.

I've read a bit on Zope and seems like it’s a great product. I haven't
looked into Plone yet but will be looking into it now. Thanks for the tip.

The thing about Zope, my impression is that once you develop the app in Zope
your pretty much stuck with that application server. Probably the case with
any system, but the thing that's appealing with XML / XSLT from a business
point of view at least is that it’s a standard. This might give you
flexibility to merge with another website to provide additional service
offerings since most major application servers support XML/XLST. If the only
companies you can easily merge applications with must be running Zope, this
will limit your flexibility and therefore your value.

Now, if its easy to integrate Zope applications with applications running on
.Net/Jboss/etc then this is not an issue. Part of what I'm trying to figure
out is, from the experts that have been in the trenches with these system -
what is their experience. Just my impression about Zope is that it's a
pretty closed system. If this is incorrect please let me know. I would hate
to unfairly dismiss a great platform such as Zope.

Any idea how large the websites are that run Plone or Zope? So, number of
users that use the website and number of pages that make up the website?

I agree, don't reinvent anything. Develop apps as quickly as possible, make
system scalable, easy to manage, easy to add functionality, and keep your OS
/ platform / language options as open as as you can. This is a very messy
dynamic optimization problem that depends on lot's of variables. Just trying
to nail down as many variables as I can at this point in time.

Thanks again,
Richard

>> I am laying out a new medium size website that I was hoping I could use
>> Python / XML on the server side. This is a brand new site, no e-commerce
at
>> first, but will add later. Site will need the blog, wiki, group calendar,
>> and other basic features. The size of site will initially about 50 pages,
>> but should grow quickly to few thousand pages. Much of the content will
be
>> produced by users. So, main concern is being able to apply stylesheets to
>> content to keep a consistent look.
>
>Why don't you just use Plone?  No need to reinvent the wheel.  Plone is
>built on Zope, so there is your Python.  It does not use xslt, but its page
>templates are in ZPT, which is actually an xml-based language. Plone, as a
>content management system,  should do anything you need, and you can always
>extend it (Python programming and ZPT) as needed.  Plone uses an extensive
>set of skins to get its appearance, and the page layout and appearance can
>be massively customized if you want.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Tom P