ExternalFile extends Zope to work with files in the filesystem. You can create instances of ExternalFile that behave like standard Zope objects except that they get their contents from a file located anywhere in a Zope-accessable filesystem. You can edit the contents directly using file-based tools, or through Zope in the browser (for ASCII files) or through Zope via FTP or webdav. For example, ExternalFile has been used to provide convenient access to Java WebStart (".jnlp") files, Shockwave Flash scripts, etc.

The current release adds the following features:

• recursive batch add capability -- add instances whole filesystems at a time. This function can be run multiple times without error-- duplicates are logged and ignored. For example, you could perform the same batch add each week to pick up any new files
• tunable batch add parameters -- for example, you can avoid adding CVS control files or system files via a series of easy to use filters
• page templates -- all ZMI GUI screens use pages templates instead of DTML
• streaming Serving up files and images is now much faster thanks to a patch provided by Dennis Allison

The current release is compatible with CVSFile-0-9-0.

ExternalFile can now behave like any of the following:

• DTMLDocument
• DTMLMethod
• Image
• File
• Page Template

Why not simply use ExtFile? Because ExternalFile supports pointing to a file "in situ" like a symbolic link, rather than copying it into some central repository directory.

This may not seem like a big deal, until you consider that those files might be stored in a revision control system like CVS. ExternalFile gives you the ability to create a Zope object that points to a file in, for example, a CVS sandbox for its content.

ExternalFile is usable by itself. It is also the base class for CVSFile.

This product is compatible with the popular ExternalEditor product.

Objects created using ExternalFile version 1.1.0 should work with no changes under version 1.2.0 that is, no special Schema Migration is necessary.