[Zope-PTK] Categorization, ZTopics and Portal Functionality

[Monty Taylor]

Hey all.
I've been fairly vacant in my attention to this list recently (vactions
and all) so forgive me if we've already covered this. I searched through
the list and found some stuff, which I'm basing some of this on.

One of the things that I need, and that it seems that lots of people
want, is categorization. The ZTopics product goes a long way towards
this,  but we're still missing one thing - a Portal Manager should be
able to manage categories without having to go into the management
interface. Here's what I'm going to try to put together over the next
few days (I have multiple projects, some with deadlines, that all want
something like this) but I'm going to need a bit of help.

Category product.
  User chooses to add a Category.
  User chooses where in the Category hierarchy he wants this Category to
live.
  Adding the Category creates a ZTopic that lives in the selected
container.
(simple so far, right?)
Modify current Portal Products.
  User should be able to 'Categorize' any given portal product. (If he
can publish it, he should be able to categorize it as well.) Maybe
modify Set status. (?)
  Multiple categories should be supported.
  The Category selection boxes can be generated from a simple Catalog
search for meta_type="ZTopic"

The thing I'm not certain of is the storing of the Category selection
for each product. If we use Subject, (here's where I was reading earlier
posts) we store a list of key words, right? So if we have :
  Categories-
      Cat1-
          Cat2-
      Cat3-
We could have a select box filled with:
  'Cat1','Cat1:Cat2','Cat3' -- this would allow for independance of
sub-categories
OR
  'Cat1','Cat2','Cat3' -- in which each category or sub-categoy would
have to be unique, but would allow for interesting cross-referencing
possibilities. This doesn't imply category structure during
categorization, though.
OR
  have the select box list 'Cat1','Cat1:Cat2','Cat3' but store
'Cat1','Cat2','Cat3'

I think I like the last one, but it could be confusing for maintainence.

I also wonder about access control on categories, but that still may
have to fall-back to using the management interface.

Any thoughts, comments, ideas? I'm going to start working, but if anyone
sees and landmines or is already working on something similar, please
let me know.

Monty