After restarting my Zope server, I chose "ZShrink" from the pulldown-list and added a new "ZShrink" instance. Then I entered an id and an optional file path to store the file attachments. If you enter a file path the "LocalFS" object is added that links to the file path you have entered. Otherwise, if you leave the file path field empty, no "LocalFS" object will be added in the ZShrink instance.

ZShrink uses Zope's new "cool" language -- "TAL" and Page Templates. After adding a new instance called "myZShrink", I was able to view the following issue summary page:

Screen Shot

Screenshot: issue summary page

The issue summary page displays all existing issues that can be filtered. The filter feature enables you to have issues disappear, for example, when their status is "closed". Via the summary page you can submit a new issue, or edit your user preferences.


Managing users

I was a little confused how the user management works in ZShrink, so I sent an email to the author. Within a couple of minutes I received a reply with the necessary instructions. Really nice support!

Before one can submit an issue one has to be a user of that "ZShrink". Sadly, on the main page there is no link to add a new user. In the Readme.txt file I read that one has to view the "add_user_screen" Page Template via the ZMI to add a new user. After I entered a username ("nico") and an email address, the username and a random password was sent to my email address.

When adding the user "nico", a new user object: "nico" is added to the acl_users folder. The acl_users folder is found by acquisition. (Note: If you have not added one, the one from the Root Folder is used.) Additionally, a folder "nico" is created in the folder "Users" in the ZShrink instance. Unfortunately, the user "nico" does not have any role. In following releases, it would be very helpful to be able to select an existing role or create a default role that is automatically assigned to new ZShrink users.

In order to submit an issue, you have to be logged in and your username must exist in the folder "Users" of the "ZShrink" instance. By default, anonymous users have access to a "ZShrink" instance. Therefore, I deselected the "ZShrink" instance's "Acquire Permission Setting" checkbox for the "View" permission, so from now on I have to login to get the issue summary page. Sadly, there is no way, to manage ZShrinks users via the issue summary page.

After I set the permissions in the ZShrink instance, I logged in as the user which I created a couple of minutes ago. But, the username and password didn't work because the user "nico" added to the acl_users folder does not have any role, so I assigned the role 'Manager' to that user by hand. Now I can log in as "nico": the username of the currently logged in user matches the username I created in the folder "/Users" in the ZShrink instance.

You cannot delete existing ZShrink users via the ZMI. Deleting the folder with the name of the user in the folder "/Users" of a ZShrink instance does not work. The user continues to appear on the issue summary page. This needs to be fixed.

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