FAQs

How do I install ZUBB?

For ZUBB 0.8 and above:

Download and untar the product package and you will end up with a ZDBase folder
In the ZDBase folder move the /import/ZDiscussions.zexp into your Zope/import/ directory. This should be at the root level of your Zope installation (unix or windows)
Move the entire ZDBase/ directory into your Zope Products directory which is either at the Zope install root level or in /lib/python/Products/
Restart Zope
In the management interface go to Control Panel > Product Management and click on the Export button.
In the "Import file name" put ZDiscussions.zexp and click Import.
Find a place you want to create a ZDiscussion Topic and choose it from the Product list
Go into the topic and select the "Regenerate methods" tab in menu tabs and click the "Regenerate" Button
If this is not installed in a CMF site, uncheck the "authentification_required" option in the options menu.
If you want to allow anonymous posts under the security tab give anonymous Add ZDiscussions Item permission

This is for ZUBB 0.7.0 and before:

Download to the root of your Zope installation (ex: /usr/local/zope)
Untar the file (ex: "->tar xvfz ZDiscussions-0.1.1.tar.gz") and restart Zope
In the management interface go to Control Panel > Product Management and click on the Export button.
In the "Import file name" put ZDiscussions.zexp and click Import.
Find a place you want to create a ZDiscussion Topic and choose it from the Product list
WARNING Give it an ID AND a TITLE (if you don't all your posts will be "No Subject" and you will no be able to give it one later)
Go into the topic and select the "Regenerate methods" tab and click the "Regenerate" Button (see note below for older versions of Zope
If you want to allow anonymous posts under the security tab give anonymous Add ZDiscussions Item permission

What about a SQL version of ZUBB?

It would be possible to take all the methods and have them point to a SQL database but sort of takes away from the full idea of ZUBB. All of the posts, topics, messages are stored in the ZODB (Zope Object Database) and therefore are easily searchable and can interact as part of the whole Zope site. By it into a database you are basically taking away from the power of Zope and might as well use one of the other CGI based boards.

That being said, we did start to develop a SQL ZUBB a few years ago but found that ZODB could live up to the needs of the product.

This FAQ applies to: 1.0

Can ZUBB Scale?

In a nutshell, yes.

ZUBB is a very processor intensive application. Since it runs a ZCatalog of all of the posts with all text (which allows for the quick searches) it can take a lot to run through them.

I have boards running up to 4,500 messages on sub GHz Pentium's that do just fine.

This FAQ applies to: 1.0

How do I get CSS to work?

ZUBB 0.8.0:

ZUBB now includes a option to include the zubb.css file or not.

ZUBB 0.7.0 and below:

The CSS file is called "local_css" and can be used by adding the following code to your standard_html_header before the <body> tag.

<dtml-if local_css>

<dtml-var local_css>

</style>

</dtml-if>

Update: ZUBB 0.8+ has a built in option for zubb.css or you can disable it and use your own.

How do I add a description?

ZUBB is set to show the description on the main index page. If there is a description it shows it, if not, it does not. (duh).

To add a description just add a property to the discussion board "folder" or above.

You can use the "manage_propertiesForm" and tack it on to the end of the URL. Name it "description" and use the text field.

This FAQ applies to: 1.0

How do I optimize ZUBB?

ZUBB is pretty processor intensive. Every time the index_html is hit, it does a look up through all the posts, finds the newest ones and for each one of those (depending on your batch_size) goes through them and counts the replies.

It is the counting of replies that is so intensive and where you should focus your optimization efforts.

Reduce the batch_size and you will reduce the amount of topics it needs to fun through
Remove the "replies" column from the "index_html"
Use caching in the main page

This FAQ applies to: 1.0

How do I update/upgrade ZUBB?

Download and upack the product as in the installation (see installation instructions)
Erase the old ZDiscussions product (You can leave ZDBase)
Import in the new ZDiscussions.zexp
Restart Zope
Regenerate your default methods (See Note Below)

This FAQ applies to: 1.0

How do I change the size for all boards?

When rendering the index_html, new_posts and search methods ZUBB looks for a parameter called "batch_size" and uses that as the amount to show on one page.

If you want to set the batch_size for all of your discussion boards you can add the property batch_size to any folder above the discussion boards.

This FAQ applies to: 1.0

How do I install ZUBB on Windows?

The installation on Windows is pretty much the same except for the location of the files.

If you Zope installs into:
C:\Program Files\Zope\

Put the ZDiscussions.zexp into:
C:\Program Files\Zope\import

Put the whole ZDBase folder into:
C:\Program Files\Zope\lib\python\Products\

Restart your Zope, and follow the rest of the instructions for importing the ZDiscussions.zexp, adding a topic, etc.

This was tested with Zope 2.7.0, ZUBB 0.8 on Windows 2000.

This FAQ applies to: 1.0

How do I regenerate methods in ZUBB 0.5.3 and 0.6.0?

If you are using 0.5.3 or above on Zope 2.1.6 or below you will need add a line to the <b>manage_regenerateDefaultMethods</b> which is under Control Panel / Products / ZDiscussions / ZDTopic

You need to add the 'this(),' statement as seen below

<pre>
dtml-call "manage_addProduct['OFSP'].addDTMLMethod(
   				this(),
               _['sequence-item'],
               title=_.getattr(default_methods, _['sequence-item']).title,
               file=_.getattr(default_methods, _['sequence-item']))">
</pre>

After that the 'Regenerate Method' menu tab should work fine.

This FAQ applies to: 1.0

Tannic, Inc.

Document Actions

ZUBB

How do I install ZUBB?

What about a SQL version of ZUBB?

Can ZUBB Scale?

How do I get CSS to work?

How do I add a description?

How do I optimize ZUBB?

How do I update/upgrade ZUBB?

How do I change the size for all boards?

How do I install ZUBB on Windows?

How do I regenerate methods in ZUBB 0.5.3 and 0.6.0?