[Zope-CMF] Versioned Documents (was: Workflow first cut is ready)

[albert boulanger]

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   Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 20:12:58 -0400
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   > Yes.
   > 
   > I've been thinking about a Versioned Document capability a lot recently as
   > I've been trying to understand how to use CMS as a Document Management
   > system. Most of the pieces of Document Management are there (especially now
   > with customizable workflow). One missing piece is Versioned Documents.
   > 
   > Versioned Documents differ from Zope Versions in several respects.
   > 
   > 1. Versions older than the current version must continue exist until they
   > are explicitly deleted. You don't want a Pack operation to clean them out
   > inadvertently.
   > 
   > 2. Older versions may need special treatment in the catalog. You may not
   > want them cluttering the catalog; you may or may not want them retrievable
   > via a catalog search.
   > 
   > 3. Older versions must be retrievable. For example, we sometimes need to
   > send older manual versions to customers who are using older versions of our
   > products.
   > 
   > 4. It may be desirable to put a slight barrier in front of older versions,
   > so that an older version is not retrieve accidently in place of a newer
   > version. Or in other words, by default you always get the most current
   > document, but you can get an older one with some additional effort (or
   > syntax).
   > 
   > 5. In some respects, all versions should be accessible by the same ID. For
   > example, when a new version of a document is published, users should get the
   > newest version when following the URL that they stored for an older version.
   > In other respects, each version must be separately identifiable; for
   > example, in a workflow various versions of a document may exist
   > simultaneously with different workflow status.
   > 
   > I hope others will chime in if I missed any essential points.
   > 
   > -- Loren

   Maybe writing a Zope storage adapter front end for CVS would be the
   right solution here?  I have to admit that for certain kinds of
   documents (e.g. source code) I will not tolerate anything but CVS for
   storage.

   I have no idea how realistic this idea is.

I would also want its semantics to be compatible with the W3C effort to
add versioning to web-dav.

Regards,
Albert Boulanger
vPatch Technologies