[Zope-PTK] PTK - Putting it all together (2nd try - please?)

[Dennis Nichols]

[I posted the stuff below several days ago and received one "that's a great 
question and besides..." answer and then an answer to the "besides..." 
part. But I still don't have my answer. Feel free to pick answers from this 
list, or make up your own:
  - Your question is too stupid too answer
  - You'll never understand. Retire and move to Florida
  - The steps are ...
  - You should hire <name> to help you
  - You can only make demo portals, not real ones
  - Nobody has figured it out yet
As you can tell, I really need help. I know you (we) are all very busy, but 
I'll certainly appreciate any help that you can provide.]

I need help understanding how to make this leap:

1. I can successfully install the PTK (ie, the
    installed products PTKBase and PTKDemo plus
    the [no adjective] product DemoPortal) and
    make a portal with them. No problem.

2. Although the PTK seems to do much of what
    I want, I'm going to have to make several
    mods/additions. It is completely beyond me
    (at the moment) how it is intended that I
    take the PTK pieces and make a portal look
    and act the way that I want.

What I think I know:
o I should NOT be customizing DemoPortal [per
   mailing list message from Mike to Philipp Dunkel
   on 26 Feb 2000]
o I should make my own equivalent of DemoPortal
   that uses PTKBase (and PTKDemo?) to do what
   I need. But how? I see that PTKDemo has
   DemoPortal stuff wired into it. Am I supposed
   to make an equivalent of PTKDemo too?

I've looked at everything I can find (documents, HowTo's, mailing list 
archives) but there is something missing for me. Maybe I could write a 
HowTo if I could only figure out how PTK is intended to be used.

Note: This is not a question about understanding the smaller pieces such as 
Python, HTML, OO, etc. Rather, it is about a larger understanding. I guess 
my question could be restated as:

    Given that I can successfully install
    and run Zope/PTK/ZServer, how do I take
    the PTK and make *my* site from it?

Still Dazed and Wandering,





--
Dennis Nichols
nichols@tradingconnections.com