Installing zope3

Wanting to try out the tutorials over at grok.zope.org ( ** CORRECTION - Actually you don't need zope3 to tryout grokproject - My mistake **) which seems really really yummy, I decided to buckle up and install zope from source on my trusty old lappie. It just requires a few steps and shouldn't be scary to all ye old sys admins out there. So, this short howto is meant for those who just dipped the big toe into the big zope pool and who are just trying to get their heads around the whole architecture.

1. Get the relevant sources. In this case python-2.4.4 from python.org and zope-3.3.x source from zope.org

2. Building python. This one is easy. Just untar the python package and then issue the commands : ./configure --prefix=/opt/python24;make;make install This will install the python binaries in the /opt/python24 folder. The reason why we have to build the python 2.4 binaries is because zope3 works best with the python-2.4.x branch.

3. Next you have to build zope. This involves untarring the zope source and then in the source directory issue the command : ./configure --prefix=/opt/zope3 --with-python=/opt/python24/bin/python. This will tell zope to install it's binaries in /opt/zope3 and use the python in /opt/python24/bin/python instead of the system PATH.

3. Create the zope instance : './opt/zope3/bin/mkzopeinstance -d /opt/zope3/instance -u [username]:[secret] where username and secret is the username and password of your choice when you want to access your zope instance.

4. Starting up your zope instance : 'cd /opt/zope3/instance/bin; ./zopectl start'. Open up your browser and try to access 'http://localhost:8080/manage'. If your installation is successful, it should prompt you for a username and password pair. Fill in the username and password from step 3.

Congrats ! You have just successfully installed zope 3 !