I'd basically like to be able to have Zope accept a URL something like this; http:\\MyZopeServer\IncomeStatement?rgn=80 and have it generate an Income Statement routine for region 80.
Make a Zope Page Template (zpt). It's possible with Python Scripts too, but when you deal with lots of HTML zpt is much better. Make a zpt with id IncomeStatement: <html> ... Region: <span tal:replace="request/rgn" /> ... </html> This results in an HTML page that says "Region: 80" if you append ?rgn=80 to the URL.
That sounds pretty simple doesn't it? I can't seem to put the pieces together. I was able to write a python module that takes the organizationtype and number and writes an Income Statement to a file in HTML.
In Python Scripts you build HTML using pure Python. Your page gets the HTML that the script returns: html_code = "<html><body>" + context.REQUEST.get('rgn', None) + "</body></html>" return html_code But zpt is much better for this.
So, what's the best approach to take? Should I try to do it with Page Templates and python scripts? Is that efficient? Is the product approachbetter?
You can have templates and python scripts in products too. I you make a site that will last for a while you certainly want a product on the filesystem, but you can do that later when you get things going. Tim