-----Original Message----- From: Michel Pelletier <michel@digicool.com> To: Tim Wilson <wilson@chemsun.chem.umn.edu> Cc: Zope Listserv <zope@zope.org> Date: Thursday, August 26, 1999 1:17 AM Subject: Re: [Zope] DTML syntax

You're application can be much simpler. Just design a ZClass that represents the object, whether it be a PDF file with meta data or whatever, as what you want it to be. A how-to on this will be forthcoming. In the meantime, I believe the KM news author is working with ZClasses, perhaps she/he can relate the experience?

I'm that KM news guy... This is a good subject for a how-to. My original suggestion was to just use the Catalog Find command, because this is a very easy way to get started. However, it would take more effort to convert those File objects to a CatalogAware ZClass later, so maybe starting out with a ZClass is the way to go. Unless you think that 2.1 or 2.2 will feature CatalogAware File objects. Here is some fodder for the how-to (let me know if any of it is wrong, because I'd love if some of these things were more automatic :) Creating a CatalogAware ZClass With relatively little effort, a ZClass can be set up to automatically add, delete and update itself from a Catalog. This is a very powerful feature because it allows the user to easily search your content and allows you to produce different views of your objects. This document expects a basic knowledge of ZClasses and describes the additional actions necessary to make a fully-CatalogAware ZClass. Constructing the ZClass When creating the ZClass, you need to select CatalogAware as the *first* base class. So, if you are creating a folderish ZClass, you would select CatalogAware first, and then select ObjectManager. Adding Objects to the Catalog Once you have inherited from CatalogAware, new objects will automatically be added to the Catalog. However, it is not uncommon to modify properties from within your ZClass_add method in the section:: <!--#with "MyZClass.createInObjectManager(REQUEST['id'], REQUEST)"--> <!--#comment--> You can ad code that modifies the new instance here. For example, if you have a property sheet that you want to update from form values, you can call it here: <!--#call "propertysheets.Basic.manage_editProperties( REQUEST)"--> <!--#/comment--> <!--#/with--> If you do modify the properties, you'll need to reindex the object so that the changes show up in the Catalog. Your code would look something like this:: <!--#with "MyZClass.createInObjectManager(REQUEST['id'], REQUEST)"--> <!--#call "propertysheets.Basic.manage_editProperties( REQUEST)"--> <dtml-call reindex_object> <!--#/with--> Changing the Objects If you use a standard propertysheet management screen, your changes do not get automatically propogated to the Catalog. You'll need to create your own editing method which changes the properties and then calls reindex_object. Deleting the Objects You don't need to do anything special to have your objects removed from the Catalog upon deletion. That's It! Any properties that your ZClass instances have will automatically show up in the Catalog, and the Catalog will stay up to date with changes! Kevin