Illustration by Brendan Davis

external editor.

	Product name External Editor Description External Editor permits you to open Zope objects using an external editor. Release Date 2002/06/25 Version External Editor 0.4 ZopeEdit 0.4 Rating (all ratings are on scale of 1-5 with 5 sushi being the best) Usability When installed properly, it's use is easy. However, installation can be a bit tricky. Software Design -- Documentation Step-by-step installation instructions for Windows and Unix systems, Readme file with background information with description of settings Usefulness It provides an easy way to edit Zope objects in an external editor without having to ftp into and out of Zope. Categories External Access What's new New binary build support for Windows Size External Editor: 12328 bytes Zope Edit (binary): 1301208 bytes Zope Edit (source): 6938 bytes Requirements Zope 2.3 or higher Python 2.2Windows or Unix system Your choice of text editor Pythonwin (if Zope Edit source is used on Windows) Tk (if Zope Edit source is used on Unix) URL ExternalEditor License ZPL Creator Casey Duncan Packaged as Python Product, plus helper application (Zope Edit) as binary or source

Use your favorite editor to edit Zope objects such as DTML Methods, Python Scripts and Page Templates.

Cons

Depending on editor chosen, possibly tricky installation/configuration.

Although Zope's management interface (ZMI) is easy to use, editing Zope objects that contain text, such as Page Templates and Python Scripts, is awkward when you use the small text area provided by the ZMI. The External Editor product permits you to use your editor of choice provided that it does not detach itself from the controlling process. One advantage of this – aside from having a larger edit window – is that one can use the search and replace functions of the editor.

The External Editor product consists of two parts: the actual product and a helper application.

The product consists of a Python class that sends the Zope object to the helper application, and a manage_main file that overwrites Zope's original manage_main file. The new file is necessary because any supported Zope object is assigned a pencil icon after its name in the ZMI. If you want to open a Zope object in the external editor, you click on the pencil icon. If you want to open it in the ZMI, you click on its name, as usual.

The helper application is either a Windows executable file or a Python executable file (you will need a working Pythonwin installation with Windows, or a Tk installation with Unix).

An installation description is included for both Windows and Unix systems. The step-by-step description is easy to follow; however, there may be some problems with correctly configuring both the helper application and your system so that the external editor is started whenever you click on a pencil icon in the ZMI. You may have to edit the config file ZopeEdit.ini or the Python file zopeedit.py depending on whether you use the binary or the source version. In this config file you can also define several file types so that you can use, for example, a different external editor for Python Scripts than you use for Page Templates.

Currently, the External Editor product supports the following Zope objects:

• DTML Document
• DTML Method
• Script (Python)
• Page Template
• Z SQL Method

The product itself is not well documented but the helper application has comments concerning the declaration of variables to define the external editor one wants to use and for which type of Zope object.

Zope objects opened in an external editor are locked via WebDAV. Make sure to close correctly the external editor after editing the Zope object; otherwise the object might not be unlocked.

If you want to open Zope objects in your favorite editor easily – that is, without having to open the objects 'manually' via ftp or webdav - this is a good product to use. The installation process might be a bit tricky depending on the editor you choose, but once the product is installed and your system properly configured, it is just a matter of a click and you can edit your Zope objects in an editor of your choice.