-----Original Message----- From: User Webteam [mailto:webteam@uni-bielefeld.de] Sent: Monday, October 11, 1999 22:18 To: zope@zope.org Subject: [Zope] Turn static HTML dynamic?
Hi!
We´re thinking about using Zope for our University website. Now we face following problem: We need a simple solution for people who don´t want to care about DTML to publish their documents using Composer or similar WYSIWYG tools. These documents should be rendered with some standard HTML-code (navigation and the like). Is there any possibility to do this without having to teach everyone <dtml-var> etc.? We tested various things (access rules) but in the best case we end up with nested <html> tags. Unfortunately, we have no python experts here and we´re not learning fast enough to present a solution within time.
Some background info: we have to ensure that virtually erveryone here has a simple way to put information on the net. Most of these people have little or no HTML knowledge but use Composer, HotMetal or even word to create their documents. So it seems unacceptable to our bosses to bother anyone with manipulating sources. We would really like to use Zope because of its great management features, user management and expandibility (and its price ;-), so any hints would be highly appreciated.
Heres my idea for this. Have a seperate ftp server running that uses different GET and PUT methods. These methods will work differently from just presenting the straight DTML. The GET method will do something like a rendering with the DTML encoded into comment tags. So <dtml-var standard_html_header> <ul> <dtml-in aList> <li><dtml-var sequence-item></li> </dtml-in> </ul> <dtml-var standard_html_footer> Would be rendered like <!--%dtml-begin-var standard_html_header--> <html> <title>A big Title</title> <body> <!--%dtml-end-var standard_html_header--> <ul> <!--%dtml-begin-in aList--> <li><!--%dtml-begin-var sequence-item-->Item1<!--%dtml-end-var sequence-item--></li> <!--%dtml-next-in aList--> <li><!--%dtml-begin-var sequence-item-->Item2<!--%dtml-end-var sequence-item--></li> <!--%dtml-end-in aList--> <!--%dtml-begin-var standard_html_footer--> </body> </html> <!--%dtml-end-var standard_html_footer--> Not exactly clean but it would mean a WYSIWYG editor could edit the whole page and as long as the comments were preserved then the everything would be fine. The PUT method would decode the above and turn it back into the orginal DTML. Changes inside iterations might have to be merged somewhat. Changes to server side includes could be propergated back to the included object as long as the user has permission to change it. Changes to variables like sequence-item can just be ignored. Changes to objects with which the user has no permission can similarly be ignored. Why go to all this trouble? a) It lets wysiwyg people make changes to DTML code hopefully without destroying it. b) It lets DTML people do a bit a visual design once in awhile. c) It lets beginers write content for a site that needs to have the standard footer and header on each page and still see what it looks like. d) It will allow Zope to do something no other server side scripting can do, successfully combine scripting and wysiwyg editing. e) It allows the use existing editors such as Homesite rather trying again with javascript or java or whatever. How can this be implemented? Having a quick look round the code, not easily. I think the recursive way DTML is parsed and rendered makes it hard to put extra steps between recursions. Does everyone think this a) Won't work very well b) Isn't worth it c) great idea but impossible to impliment. d) fantastic idea, I'll have it done tonight ....?