[Zope-CMF] Need help understanding portal_actions tool and interfaces thereto

Dieter Maurer dieter@handshake.de
Fri, 9 Aug 2002 22:21:41 +0200


Phil Glaser writes:
 > I need to do some fairly extensive customization of CMF/Plone and am trying
 > to understand what the portal_actions tool is and how it works.
It asks a (configurable) set of "Action providers" (see the corresponding
tab) for actions applicable in the current context.
It is itself an action provider. It provides the actions, you
define in its "Actions" tab.

It exposes the actions collected via an API documented in the
online help (I think, at least).

 > ...
 > For example, the "local roles" action in the "my
 > stuff" contentTabs menu is not listed in the portal_actions tool. "Action
 > providers" make no sense to me.
That's very sad. It would help you to understand where the "local roles"
action comes from:

  An action provider is simply an object implementing the "action provider"
  inferface. Via this interface, the ActionsTool can ask the
  object which actions are available.

  Examples of action providers are: the WorkflowTool (it provides
  the workflow actions), the MembershipTool (it provides the
  "login/logout" actions), the RegistrationTool (it provides the
  "join" action), ....

I do not know which tool provides the "local roles" action.
If necessary, search the sources.


Dieter