[Zope] How to make a ZPT-based form that calls itself?

11 May 2005

      Hi Zopers -

I'm trying to make a ZPT-based HTML form that:

1. Displays the records in a MySQL 'Person' table;
2. Offers a field for updating this table (in my simple test example, it
accepts the Id of a Person to delete);
3. When you push its 'Submit' button, updates the database; and then
4. Automatically redisplays itself, showing the updated 'Person' records.

After a lot of help from the folks on various Zope lists, I've made it
through steps 1-3, but I'm stuck on step 4 and I can't find an example or
tutorial telling me how to do it.

The relevant code snippets are:

The ZPT's body...

<table width="100%" height="100%" border="0" cellpadding="6"
cellspacing="0">
  <tr> 
    <td width="1084" height="531" align="left" valign="top"><font
color="#000000" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><!--
InstanceBeginEditable name="Base" -->
      <h1> People (deletion test)</h1>
      <table tal:repeat="row here/dbobs/read_all_people" width="100%"
border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><font face="Verdana, Arial,
Helvetica, sans-serif">
        <tr> 
          <td width="44%" tal:content="string:${row/person_id} -
${row/first_name} ${row/middle_names} ${row/last_name}">Filler</td>
          <td width="56%"> </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      <p></p>
      <form action="dbobs/delete_person_py" method="post"
name="delete_form">
        <p>Id of Person To Delete: 
          <input type="text" name="person_id:int" />
        </p>
        <p> 
          <input name="do_delete" type="submit" id="do_delete" value="Delete
this Person" />
        </p>
      </form>
      <p>The "Ids" are the numbers in front of each person's
name.</p>
      <p><a href="deltest.htm">Refresh This Page</a></p>
      <p tal:replace="python:here.dbobs.test1('MyParamValue')">Junk</p>	
      <!-- InstanceEndEditable --></font></td>
  </tr>
</table>

...The one-line Python script "delete_person_py" that the form's action
attribute calls...

container.delete_person(person_id=context.REQUEST.get('person_id'))

...The Z SQL method delete_person(person_id) that the Python script calls...

delete from person where <dtml-sqltest person_id op=eq type=int>

...And a URL to the test page in its current incarnation...

http://dhat.vega.zettai.net/clients/ridhwan/dhr3/deltest.htm 

What's wrong with this page is that you have to hit the "Refresh This Page"
link to get it to do what I want it to do automatically.

I suspect that what I'm missing is some basic HTML knowledge.  But whatever
it is, I'd appreciate your help in suggesting the missing piece.

- Thanks, Ken

[Zope] How to make a ZPT-based form that calls itself?

Ken Winter