February 2001 - Zope

"Dialog Boxes" entity in Zope ( Re: Still trying. )
by Paul T 28 Feb '01

28 Feb '01

> > "Components need not be persistent, nor provide a management interface." - > I think > > this is a mistake. They should. Any component / bean has to be configured > > and the best way for the end user is to configure it through the GUI. > Windows 3.0 ). > > Not necessarily. Take for instance a component "XMLParser". There's no > configuration that needs to be done to it. It's a black box. It needn't be > persistent, because it is instantiated on the fly as needed. It needn't be > configured because there are no knobs to it. Yet it has an introspectable > interface. There is no black boxes in this world, I think. Even XMLParser could be configured. Ideally, each and every component in this world has at least one confugurable property. Debug="on/off" and it is convinient if this property could be set from the GUI at any point of time. For XMLparser it can also be "Validating/non-validating". In fact, it could also be : "report all the errors into separate log-file". Not talking about configurable extrenal entity resolver ( for complex XML cases ). Also it could be "cache the XML file storing it into SAX-bytecode to avoid the parsing" e t.c. e t.c. Well, in fact, even it is not a big deal to make Zope's log-file rotating, hacking the z2.py with rotating_file_logger(LOG_PATH, freq='daily'), I think you should agree that this configuration should be done with the GUI. I agree that there are some entities which will have no need in GUI configuration, but I think the number of those entities is actually small and ( more important ) I'm interested *not* in such entities, but in the easy way of building some really trivial thinghs ( like TutorialPoll ) in straightfoward way in the assumption, for example, that each such thing will have not more than just one configuration screen, but it seems that this configuration screen *has* to be in the design. Again - think about Windows 3.0. For complex things there was Window, for 'no-GUI' things there is no APIs, but there was also Dialog box! Modal Window with straightforward auto-adjustable GUI. Current Products are 'Window' Components are 'no GUI' I'm talking about the 'Dialog Box' things. Again - if we're talking about turning Zope into unbeatable "Windows 3.0". > Some instances of components will definitely need to be configured via a GUI > (just like Products are now). But the definition of "component" as it > stands is just an object with an introspectable interface. What we think of > now as "Products" will likely be special components that happen to offer a > web interface (possibly via one or more "adapters") and a set of > instantiable classes. But some components may not offer a web interface, > and others may not offer persistent instantiable classes. This means there is simply no entity for the "Dialog Box" because I'm talking neither about the Producs, nor about the Compoments, but about the 'Simplified Products'. ( TinyTable, ParsedXML e t.c. ) > > I understand the desire to stay out of XML, but try to use simple text > formats. > > The problem is that simple text formats do not scale. > > > > I mean that > > > > requires "Zope" "2.3" or better > > requires "FooProduct" "1.0" exactly > > requires "SpamProduct" "0.1" or "0.2" or "0.5" > > > > could occasionally become > > > > requires "FooProduct" "1.0" exactly > > requires "SpamProduct" "0.1" or "0.2" or "0.5" > > > > exports "something_here" > > > > Or god knows what. Designing really good ProductDescriptor > > It is like designing the *darn* complex SQL schema and going > > with the "simple table" first in the hope that it will be possible > > to tune the schema "when needed" may by suspicious step. > > This needs to be thought out more. We need to understand the requirements > better, and work out a design. Will the product machinery need to resolve > circular dependencies? What does "or better" mean? This is something for > the Fishbowl at http://dev.zope.org. The design step is the hardest part, > and this is where we can use the most help! I see two things here. 1. 'Dialog Boxes' ( simplified Products with GUI ) 2. 'CPAN' ( first - for Dialog Boxes ) I think it could initially all the things could be placed in just one ProductDescriptor.XML file This will be a foundation for most complex things and will significantly decrease a mess. BTW - writing XML for DialogBoxes could be done manually with no problem. No need in any tool. 1. Write The Python file which implements the semantics of TrivialPoll. 2. Write the XML, describing dependecies and configurable things ( This describes Zope integration ) Pretty clear separation, no ? The interaction with Zope will be generated for you. ( this is the point ). I think this may help to productize a lot of things. > > What particular list is appropriate for this discussion? > > The Zope list probably (zope(a)zope.org) Amos Lattierer asked for comments > on the roadmap document on the Zope list, so it's certainly on-topic. Rgds.Paul. PS. See also. http://www.pault.com/X/983148775/index_html http://dev.zope.org/Wikis/DevSite/Proposals/FinishedProductGuidelines

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dynamic & automatic 3 level navigation bar ?
by Georg Hoermann 28 Feb '01

28 Feb '01

Hallo Zope-world, I have a problem I think someone *must* have already solved. I am (relatively) new to zope and I want to offer zope as an easy to use simple CMS for our scientists and students. The put their stuff/files into zope and thats it. No fuzzing around with navigation bars, frames and so if they do not want. They will create rather deep file-hierarchies and the navigation bar taken from standard_header. This is where my problem comes in: I need a simple (text is enough) navigation bar which shows a menu of (all) the entries/folders at the actual, the parent and the child level. So even at level 20 there would only be a simple 3-level navigation bar with the actual position in the middle which adapts itself dynamically to the position within the file system. All the navigation bars I encountered up to now (including the tree tag) clutter the screen if the hierarchy becomes to deep/large, must by manually created and maintained or do not adapt to the hierarchy level. Is there a solution or could anyone help me with this ? If someone could program it I promise to write a decent documentation and do the polishing 8-). I learned a lot about zope looking at the code of the existing products but I am fed up in the mixture of many differents manuals, 164 HowTos, the source code and the zope book. Thanks & Greetings Georg -- Georg Hoermann, Ecosystem Research Center, Kiel University, Germany Tel. #49-431-880-4029, fx: -4083 Home: 0451/47 70 32, -33 fax, 0172/431 57 15 schorsch(a)ecology.uni-kiel.de

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Re: [Zope] How to properly do navigation Bar without un-authorized sub-objects?
by Tres Seaver 28 Feb '01

28 Feb '01

"Brad Clements" <bkc(a)murkworks.com> wrote: > > I need to "hand generate" a navigation bar, showing only those subobjects > to which the current user is authorized to view. > > It seems as if I'd get an AttributeError when trying to access items that I > can't access, but with LoginManager it pops up a login box.. Which I don't > want. > > My design is to have each "folder" have its own "DrawNavBar" DTML- > Method, whose job it is to generate it's own html.. If that folder has sub- > folders, than that folder's DrawNavBar should call it's sub-folders > DrawNavBar functions. > > To avoid a recursive loop resolving DrawNavBar, I use aq_explicit, like > this: > > <dtml-try> > <dtml-var "_.getattr(PARENTS[-1].Z.Admin.aq_explicit,'ShowNavBar')(_.None,_)"> > <dtml-except AttributeError> > </dtml-try> > > The problem with this is that I get a login prompt from LoginManager if I'm > anonymous.. > > I suppose I could use something like dtml-in to only show those objects to > which I'm authorized, but I don't want to enumerate the contents of the > folder, since I know exactly what I'm looking for. If you know the list of objects you are looking for, then you can still use '<dtml-in myList skip-unauthorized>' to get the effect you want. > So.. given an explcit path, how can I find out if the current user can > 'access' that path item, such as a DTML-method? > > I'm not asking Zope to confirm that the object exists if I don't have access > to it.. just say "no such object" or "here's the object" and not use > acquisition to find it up the path. > > Ideas? I'm not sure if this fits the bill:: <dtml-let sm="getSecurityManager()"> <dtml-if expr="sm.checkPermission( 'View', myMethod )"> .... </dtml-if> .... </dtml-let> Tres. -- =============================================================== Tres Seaver tseaver(a)digicool.com Digital Creations "Zope Dealers" http://www.zope.org

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"Bubbling up" to parent error message?
by Joel Burton 28 Feb '01

28 Feb '01

We have a folder called /home in the root of our site, for our users' home directories. If you browse to /home/joel, there's my site. If you browse to /home/joel/foo, and I have no resource foo, you should get the standard error message. (Which, without any work, you do! :-) ) However, if you browse to /home/fooperson, I'd rather you got a message that said "Sorry, no user" and listed our users, than having you get the standard error message. So far, I have the following code: <dtml-comment> Handle errors. If they're looking for a user that doesn't exist, eg /home/foo show a "No Such user" message. If they're looking in an existing directory, but there's no such a document, or, for all other Zope errors, do the usual thing. </dtml-comment> <dtml-if "error_type=='NotFound' and URLPATH2==''"> <dtml-var standard_html_header> No Such User! <dtml-var standard_html_footer> <dtml-else> <dtml-var "PARENTS[2].standard_error_message()"> </dtml-if> The URLPATH2='' checks that you are looking in /home/xxx. If you're looking for /home/joel/xxx, URLPATH2 != '', and you get the else clause. The PARENTS[2] bit is trying to say "show the standard_error_message that's up the acquisition chain from this one", but failing miserably. PARENTS[2].standard_error_message w/o () gives me the *source* of the error message, w/ () doesn't work, and gives me the hard- coded-in-sourcecode error message, not the one in my root directory. Any ideas? Thanks! -- Joel Burton, Director of Information Systems -*- jburton(a)scw.org Support Center of Washington (www.scw.org)

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Faking default method for ZSQL w/pluggable brain
by Joel Burton 28 Feb '01

28 Feb '01

For ZSQL methods, I'd rather there appear to be a default method. So, searching staff_by_id for #17, instead of /staff_by_id/15/viewFull you could search for /staff_by_id/15 and get the same thing (this maps better to our previous, non-Zope directory structure.) So, I wrote a Pluggable Brain for staff_by_id: class Staff: """Pluggable brain for SCW Staff""" def index_html(self): "Return a default method for this staff person." return self.viewFull.__call__(self) This works fine -- unless my DTML Method viewFull wants to look at PARENTS[], AUTHENTICATED_USER, or a whole other slew of things. Instead, trying return self.viewFull(self) doesn't help instead. What am I missing? Thanks for any help! -- Joel Burton, Director of Information Systems -*- jburton(a)scw.org Support Center of Washington (www.scw.org)

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Different User Folders
by Andy McKay 28 Feb '01

28 Feb '01

Gosh how many different user folders do we have? A quick search for User and Software Products turns up 43. I've been using Generic User Folder, but it kind of sucks. Is there a better one that is 2.3 compliant, Login Manager seems obvious but I cant seen any notes about it being Zope 2.3 compliant? Is there a plan to integerate all these into one or two since they all really do the same thing? -- Andy McKay.

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Does LoginManager 0.8.8b1 work with Zope 2.3b1?
by Brad Clements 28 Feb '01

28 Feb '01

subject says it all. thanks Brad Clements, bkc(a)murkworks.com (315)268-1000 http://www.murkworks.com (315)268-9812 Fax netmeeting: ils://ils.murkworks.com AOL-IM: BKClements

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NT Authenticated Users
by Mark Derricutt 28 Feb '01

28 Feb '01

I'm looking at porting a DelphiCGI/IIS application over to Zope, however, the current application uses IIS in non-anonymous mode, which supplies the HTTP request with a LOGON_USER paramater, which contains the NTDOMAIN/USER of the user requesting the page. Is there anyway to do this under Zope/Python (or even Apache), one of the requirements of the application is that I can handle this automatic authentication of NT users. Mark -- There are exceptions, I'm sure, but the Windows 2000 on-line community seems to have, in general, the moral and spiritual qualities of your average porn site. (c) Bryan Pfaffenberger, Linux Journal, Jan 2001.

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Zope/DCO2 and CHAR[1] fields not working.
by Mark Derricutt 27 Feb '01

27 Feb '01

Hi, I've only recently started playing with Zope, and esp. the new DCO2 Oracle product, but far I'm liking it very much. However, I've come accross a problem when trying to access certain fields in our databases, we have several char[1] fields, used for storing 'Y'/'N' and various other "single character identifiers", however, when issueing an SQL statement such as "select user_flag_1 from staff" I get the following error: Error, exceptions.TypeError: no type converter registered for type SQLT_AFC I'm using the binary release of the oracle product running under Zope 2.3/NT . Does anyone here have any hints and/or solutions I could try to getting this resolved? Mark -- Sig goes here.

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How to properly do navigation Bar without un-authorized sub-objects?
by Brad Clements 27 Feb '01

27 Feb '01

I need to "hand generate" a navigation bar, showing only those subobjects to which the current user is authorized to view. It seems as if I'd get an AttributeError when trying to access items that I can't access, but with LoginManager it pops up a login box.. Which I don't want. My design is to have each "folder" have its own "DrawNavBar" DTML- Method, whose job it is to generate it's own html.. If that folder has sub- folders, than that folder's DrawNavBar should call it's sub-folders DrawNavBar functions. To avoid a recursive loop resolving DrawNavBar, I use aq_explicit, like this: <dtml-try> <dtml-var "_.getattr(PARENTS[-1].Z.Admin.aq_explicit,'ShowNavBar')(_.None,_)"> <dtml-except AttributeError> </dtml-try> The problem with this is that I get a login prompt from LoginManager if I'm anonymous.. I suppose I could use something like dtml-in to only show those objects to which I'm authorized, but I don't want to enumerate the contents of the folder, since I know exactly what I'm looking for. So.. given an explcit path, how can I find out if the current user can 'access' that path item, such as a DTML-method? I'm not asking Zope to confirm that the object exists if I don't have access to it.. just say "no such object" or "here's the object" and not use acquisition to find it up the path. Ideas? Thanks Brad Clements, bkc(a)murkworks.com (315)268-1000 http://www.murkworks.com (315)268-9812 Fax netmeeting: ils://ils.murkworks.com AOL-IM: BKClements

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