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Where do I put my new package?

In building something, it's always good to know where you stand, where to begin storing your work. Zope packages are simply Python packages, typically a directory located somewhere along the Python import path (PYTHONPATH).

While placing your package on that path means Python can import it, Zope 3 uses no magical package detection facility and won't know about it until a special descriptor file (<package>-configure.zcml) is dropped into the "etc/package-includes/" directory of a particular instance of Zope.

Typically Zope packages are placed underneath a "Zope 3 package root", of which there are several.

{zope3-checkout-directory}/src/

If you installed Zope 3 from the official subversion source repository, packages can be installed under the "src" directory, and will then be available to all Zope website instances.

{zope3-software-install-directory}/lib/python/

If you installed Zope 3 from a tarball or other packaged distribution, packaged placed here will be available to all Zope website instances.

{zope3-instance-directory}/lib/python/

This is the directory you specified to the "mkzopeinstance" command and packages placed here are private to the given instance of Zope, which can be good for those under development.

In my case my instance directory is "~/zope3", so let's create a directory named "bookmarker":

  {jrush]# cd ~/zope3/lib/python
  [jrush]# mkdir bookmarker
  [jrush]# cd bookmarker

And then to make our new package "importable" to Python, create a nearly empty "__init__.py" file. I say nearly empty because while Python is happy with a completely empty file, some software distribution tools have trouble with empty files.

  [jrush]# cd ~/zope3/lib/python/bookmarker
  [jrush]# echo "# A Python Package" > __init__.py

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