Best way to subclass DTML Document and some other ZClasses questions
I decided to subclass DTML Document and (using ZClass) create my own document class (in fact I wanted all my documents to possess some standard properties and prompt for them on initialization and also to be CatalogAware). I succeeded (everything more-or-less works), but I still have some doubts: 1) How can I set standard DTML Document properties (title!) from my constructor? I created constructor form and constructor method, I succesfully prompt for and set all my properties but I do not know how to set properties belonging to DTML Document. 2) Can I do anything to have single property screen which would behave as original DTML Document property screen but present both original properties and properties belonging to my custom property sheet? 3) Can I influence property editing screens (what I want is to increase some edit boxes)? I created also some classes which do not inherit DTML Document or DTM method. I have questions about such a configuration: 4) Can I do something to have ZCatalog PrincipiaSearch (i.e. full text search) to scan some property of my custom ZClass (say property body from propertysheet Basic)? 5) Can I write index_html method of my custom class so it interpret DTML tags (like dtml-var substitution)? And one question after the whole mess. I migrated my (fairly small so far) website from DTML Documents to my custom document class - and I did it manually. But I would not like to perform similar operation manually if the site contained 500 or 5000 pages. 6) What you, Zope gurus, would do if you were to find all the DTML Documents in some directory tree and remove them, creating instead XXXX Documents (where XXXX Document is some subclass of DTML Document) - and keeping the document id, title, contents and properties without change? 7) And what if you were to change something a little - say detect that some property belongs to custom propertysheet and put it there instead on putting on standard DTML Document propertysheet? Regards and thanks in advance for any hints and references Marcin -- Serwis nie tylko mieszkaniowy: http://www.mk.w.pl | | Osoba jest omegalizacją ewolucji uniwersalnej na określonym odcinku | etapowym (Teilhard de Chardin) |
On Mon, 14 Aug 2000, Marcin Kasperski wrote:
1) How can I set standard DTML Document properties (title!) from my constructor? I created constructor form and constructor method, I succesfully prompt for and set all my properties but I do not know how to set properties belonging to DTML Document.
Pass it as an argument to the call that creates the DTML Document.
2) Can I do anything to have single property screen which would behave as original DTML Document property screen but present both original properties and properties belonging to my custom property sheet?
Yep. You should be able to replicate everything the original constructor code does in your own code. Read The Source, Luke <grin>.
3) Can I influence property editing screens (what I want is to increase some edit boxes)?
As far as I know (until Martjin finishes his skinnable support) you can only do that by wholesale replacing the editing screen with your own form. Or by modifying the source.
I created also some classes which do not inherit DTML Document or DTM method. I have questions about such a configuration:
4) Can I do something to have ZCatalog PrincipiaSearch (i.e. full text search) to scan some property of my custom ZClass (say property body from propertysheet Basic)?
You can add that property name as an index, and construct your search form so the search string is submitted to it (see the Advanced ZCatalog Searching HowTo). Or, you could define your own PrincipiaSearchSource method and return whatever value is appropriate. I *think* you should be able to define this as a method of your ZClass, but I've never tried that. I know it works from python <grin>.
5) Can I write index_html method of my custom class so it interpret DTML tags (like dtml-var substitution)?
I'm sure you can, but I don't know how <grin>. But if you are doing that, why not just subclass DTML-Method (or document)?
6) What you, Zope gurus, would do if you were to find all the DTML Documents in some directory tree and remove them, creating instead XXXX Documents (where XXXX Document is some subclass of DTML Document) - and keeping the document id, title, contents and properties without change?
Write an external method to do all the object creation, property copying, and old object deletion.
7) And what if you were to change something a little - say detect that some property belongs to custom propertysheet and put it there instead on putting on standard DTML Document propertysheet?
Easy to do in external method python code.
Regards and thanks in advance for any hints and references
I think my answers are a little bit too cryptic to be immediately useful. Maybe someone else will give specifics, otherwise I hope they serve as useful hints. --RDM
"R. David Murray" wrote:
On Mon, 14 Aug 2000, Marcin Kasperski wrote:
1) How can I set standard DTML Document properties (title!) from my constructor? I created constructor form and constructor method, I succesfully prompt for and set all my properties but I do not know how to set properties belonging to DTML Document.
Pass it as an argument to the call that creates the DTML Document.
How? Currently my constructor method contains the following (mk_dtml_document is my custom class which subclasses DTML Document, Extra is the name of my custom propertysheet): <dtml-with "mk_dtml_document.createInObjectManager(REQUEST['id'],REQUEST)"> <dtml-call "propertysheets.Extra.manage_editProperties(REQUEST)"> <dtml-comment> How can I change original title? </dtml-comment> <dtml-call reindex_object> </dtml-with> title is present in REQUEST and is not set in created document.
2) Can I do anything to have single property screen which would behave as original DTML Document property screen but present both original properties and properties belonging to my custom property sheet?
Yep. You should be able to replicate everything the original constructor code does in your own code. Read The Source, Luke <grin>.
I hate replicating code. I love calling it. Couldn't it be done this way?
4) Can I do something to have ZCatalog PrincipiaSearch (i.e. full text search) to scan some property of my custom ZClass (say property body from propertysheet Basic)?
You can add that property name as an index, and construct your search form so the search string is submitted to it (see the Advanced ZCatalog Searching HowTo). Or, you could define your own PrincipiaSearchSource method and return whatever value is appropriate. I *think* you should be able to define this as a method of your ZClass, but I've never tried that. I know it works from python <grin>.
I tried defining DTML Method with name PrincipiaSearchSource and contents <dtml-var body> (body is my custom property name). Next I clicked 'Update Catalog' in ZCatalog screen. Seems my attempt has been ignored - the amount of objects indexed via PrincipiaSearchSource (according to ZCatalog status screen) has not changed (those object are succesfully indexed on title etc).
5) Can I write index_html method of my custom class so it interpret DTML tags (like dtml-var substitution)?
I'm sure you can, but I don't know how <grin>. But if you are doing that, why not just subclass DTML-Method (or document)?
Because I have not done it previously and now I have about 100 objects of this type and do not know how to perform such a change.
6) What you, Zope gurus, would do if you were to find all the DTML Documents in some directory tree and remove them, creating instead XXXX Documents (where XXXX Document is some subclass of DTML Document) - and keeping the document id, title, contents and properties without change?
Write an external method to do all the object creation, property copying, and old object deletion.
What about some sample code? Regards -- Serwis nie tylko mieszkaniowy: http://www.mk.w.pl | | The cost of a few uncorrected non-critical human errors is less then | the cost imposed by a process that tries to prevent them. | (Booch,Martin,Newkirk)
On Wed, 16 Aug 2000, Marcin Kasperski wrote:
Pass it as an argument to the call that creates the DTML Document.
How? Currently my constructor method contains the following (mk_dtml_document is my custom class which subclasses DTML Document, Extra is the name of my custom propertysheet):
<dtml-with "mk_dtml_document.createInObjectManager(REQUEST['id'],REQUEST)">
Hmm. I've only done this kind of thing by calling the add method of the class, where you could pass in, say, title=title. I'm not sure how you'd do it with createInObjectManager. Although you might try wrapping the whole thing in <dtml-with REQUEST>. The REQUEST title may be getting overridden by another title property that happens to be blank.
Yep. You should be able to replicate everything the original constructor code does in your own code. Read The Source, Luke <grin>.
I hate replicating code. I love calling it. Couldn't it be done this way?
Maybe. You'd have to look at the source code and see if can handle being called as a subroutine. If not, somebody ought to refactor it <grin>.
I tried defining DTML Method with name PrincipiaSearchSource and contents
<dtml-var body>
(body is my custom property name). Next I clicked 'Update Catalog' in ZCatalog screen. Seems my attempt has been ignored - the amount of objects indexed via PrincipiaSearchSource (according to ZCatalog status screen) has not changed (those object are succesfully indexed on title etc).
As someone else said, the method has to be parameterless (yours probably appears to be). This also means that it can't depend on having a name space around (that usually gets passed implicitly to dtml methods), including REQUEST, since Catalog won't have that to pass it in most indexing scenarios. At first glance I'd think your code would work, but I can think of two other things you could try: <dtml-return body>, and defining an external method instead and just have it just do "return self.body".
5) Can I write index_html method of my custom class so it interpret DTML tags (like dtml-var substitution)?
I'm sure you can, but I don't know how <grin>. But if you are doing that, why not just subclass DTML-Method (or document)?
Because I have not done it previously and now I have about 100 objects of this type and do not know how to perform such a change.
Ah, yes, changing the base class of a ZClass is hard. There's a hold-onto-your-pants recipie for doing it, but it's not for the faint of heart. Check the HowTo's if you are curious. Depending on the complexity of the objects, you could write an external method that would write the data out to a file in some format, and another to read the data back in and use it to instantiate new objects of the desired type. I did this once with a 60K database of objects <wry grin>. I *could* send you that source code as an example, if you want. I based the re-load code on the "adding ZClass object programatically" howto.
Write an external method to do all the object creation, property copying, and old object deletion.
What about some sample code?
I haven't done it myself, so I don't have any sample code for this (but see above). --RDM
participants (2)
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Marcin Kasperski -
R. David Murray