ZEXP Converter

Extract text from Zope export files (ZEXP)

Select File
Drop or upload your .ZEXP file

Online File Converter

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How to extract text from your ZEXP file

Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your ZEXP file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert ZEXP to another file type

To convert ZEXP export files to another format, you need Zope or other Database software.

Convert a file to ZEXP

To convert other file formats to the "Object Database Export" file type, you need software like Zope or a similar tool.

About ZEXP files

A .ZEXP file is a proprietary export format generated by the Zope application server and the Plone Content Management System (CMS). It represents a serialized 'slice' of the Zope Object Database (ZODB), containing website content, user data, and configuration settings packed as binary Python 'pickles.'

Users typically encounter this file when moving content between servers (e.g., migrating a Plone site) or restoring a backup. The critical downside with .ZEXP files is that they are not standard documents; you cannot double-click to open them in Microsoft Word, a web browser, or a text editor. They are 'frozen' object streams that require a running Zope environment with the exact same installed add-ons and software version to open successfully. Attempting to open a .ZEXP without the original server environment often results in 'Broken Object' errors because the required Python classes are missing.

Best Conversion Targets:

For Content Recovery: The only reliable way to 'convert' the content is to Import the file back into a Plone or Zope instance via the ZMI (Zope Management Interface). Once imported, you can use the CMS to export the actual text and images to PDF, HTML, or JSON.
For Inspection: Developers can use Python scripts with the ZODB library to unpickle the stream and convert raw data to JSON or XML for debugging.
For Archiving: Keep as .ZEXP only if you can guarantee the software environment exists; otherwise, convert the imported content to PDF/A or standard XML.

Convert.Guru analyzes your ZEXP file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted ZPT, BASE and IMX files.

FAQ

If you want to convert ZEXP file to , you can use Zope or similar software from the "Zope Object Database Export" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert files to ZEXP, try Zope or another comparable tool in the "Zope Object Database Export" category.

The ZEXP Converter Story

The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our ZEXP converter.