[Zope-CMF] Help with content type strategy?

[Kent Polk]

On 8 Aug 2001 08:50:01 -0500, Steve Spicklemire wrote:
> 
> Hi Folks,
> 
> 	I'm learning my way around CMF and it looks really cool! I have an app that I
> think would work well here: Online classes. I teach physics labs and I'd like to
> make a "Lab Report" object. I'm thinking it would be folderish, or maybe it
> could be a queryish object (like a topic) that brings together all the
> components of a report. The idea goes something like this:
> 
> Students are "members". They can give other students (collaborators) permission
> to add content to a report that they create. Content is documents, scripts,
> graphs and so on. I have some cgi scripts I've been meaning to turn into Zope
> content for a long time, and I think that now is the time
> (http://physics-earthsci.uindy.edu/ph280). I'm thinking that allowing
> PythonScript to import Numeric will let me create Array Zope objects (e.g.,
> return Numeric.array(theList)), and I can convert my existing java and gd graphs
> to Zope as well.
> 
> Can I (should I?) create a normal Zope product (Lab Report) and then just CMFize
> it? I feel confortable with "plain" Zope objects, but I don't have a good feel
> for how they integrate/don't with CMF.
> 
> Anyway.. . any thoughts are quite welcome!

This smells a lot to me like a folderish CMF product! Since folders
became skinnable, it has a lot of promise. You could have your
LabReport Product contain the other parts and pieces, and then
provide a skin which only calls the pertinent objects, in order to
build the report.  Thso objects could be dtml methods which pull
in the data/pictures, etc. As a Product, you could provide some
special tools to help in the process, maybe create some default
objects that they can edit, etc..

Speaking of, Shane provide some key info that allowed me to figure
out how to let my proxy clients find their proxies, which were
supposed to eventually be skinnable folderish objects with lots of
goodies for doing SQL for the clients. They currently exist only
as Zope folderish objects right now, but I need to get them to
participate in the CMF/workflow.  Since I have the proxy client
stuff essentially in place, it's about time to get back to the
folder stuff.

If you are interested, I'd like to see what you are up to and maybe
help, if our paths cross. What I'm trying to do is somewhat similar,
except my 'lab reports' need to have workflow and need to cooperate
with other workflows, but first things first...

Also, you might want to keep a close eye on Ulrich's CMFFormsTool
if you need a more flexible form-generation capability.

 http://www.zope.org/Members/jack-e/CMFFormsTool
&
 http://www.zope.org/Members/jack-e/CMFFormsTool/ \
        CMFFormsToolWiki/BasicDescription