Zope is an open-source, object-oriented web application server written in the Python programming language. Zope stands for "Z Object Publishing Environment." It can be almost fully managed with a web-based user interface. Zope publishes on the web Python objects that are typically persisted in an object database, ZODB. Basic object types, such as documents, images, and page templates, are available for the user to create and manage through the web. Specialized object types, such as wikis, blogs, and photo galleries, are available as third-party add-ons (called products), and there is a thriving community of small businesses creating custom web applications as Zope products. There are two major generations of the software in use today. As of July 2007, Zope 2.10.4 is the latest stable release of Zope 2 codebase, and Zope 3.3.1 is the latest release of Zope 3. Zope is distributed under the terms of the Zope Public License, a free software license.