Kevin Dangoor wrote:
Kevin Dangoor wrote:
If there was a way to "link" from one ZClass instance to another, then you could have an Author object for each author and just have the publication point to the Author object. There are certainly ways to do this programmatically now, it's just not automatic. This way, an Author could have other properties (contact info, website address, etc.) if desired, and those properties are only stored in one place.
I have already submitted this to the collector: http://www.zope.org/Collector/380/view
But was informed that this was a low priority item, and that it had been downgraded in status to 'wish'.
Since I think that this is a VERY important feature, I am willing to put my money where my mouth is and cough up some $$$ to get this done. Consequently I have three questions:
[questions deleted]
I am about to start working on some code that will require the ability to link from one object to another. While I think having something nicely integrated in Zope to link to an object is ultimately the way to go, for now I'll just use a string property to store the URL. And I think I saw a function in ZCatalog.py that would map from a URL to an object. This is not *as* nice as an integrated feature, but it seems functional enough for my purposes.
So, my point is this: I agree it is important, but there are workarounds today.
I know there are workarounds to this (storing the URL in a string, storing the ObjID in a string, etc.) But those aren't very accessible to me. I'm not a programmer, I'm a designer that understands code, and I'd really rather not fiddle with too much low-level stuff if I can avoid it. My biggest hobby-horse is not having to decompose mutli-dimensional data spaces into a singly rooted hierarchy. The ZODB does not constrain to a single object heirarchy, but the management interface largely does. The folks at DC have been making enourmous strides towards addressing this issue with such things as ZClasses (is-a multiple inheritance of object types), ZCatalog (on-the-fly construction of object heirarchies by arbitrary atributes), the upcoming ZTables for storage of tabular data, and other improvements. But as far as I'm concerned, there is still a big gaping hole with regard to associating object instances non-heirarchicaly. The ZODB will support this, it's possible to build DTML interfaces for this, but it's not part of the current management interface. I think it should be, BEFORE Zope 2.0 is finalized, and I'm willing to shell out some cash to make it happen. So my questions still stand: 1) How much will it cost to get this added to Zope? 2) Does anyone else want to pledge some $$$ to make this happen? 3) Can we formalize this sort of arrangement in the future to allow individual developers/users to pool resources to get particular features added? (sort of a Zope-specific SourceXchange). Thank you for your attention. Michael Bernstein Chief Information Architect, Profitscape. (boy do I like my title!)