[Zope-CMF] Re: Easier maintenance than through management iface?

[Paul Winkler]

On Thu, Dec 19, 2002 at 02:48:11PM -0800, Andy McKay wrote:
> > > it's all in portal_skins.  The skins tool is very powerful.
> >
> > Okay, this is the part I absolutely don't get. I thought that skins
> > are "skins" i.e. the look that covers the functionality. Apparently
> > though, skins is just about everything of the site - forms, actions,
> > templates, styles, anything.

Yes. The reason is precisely so that you can build a custom UI
for your content  managers - like Plone, or whatever you want - 
just by using skins. 

> > Also, why are all the files under skins on my distribution Filesystem
> > objects -- files on my Hdd and not in ZopeDB? Sure, it makes sense,
> > it's a demo site and I should modify copies of these files for my own
> > site. But: where do I place these copies?
> 
> Use the ZMI to go through portal_skins and find the object. Click customise
> and a copy appears in the custom folder.
> 
> They are on the filesystem because they can be easliy distributed and
> updated without altering the ZODB.

Just to be sure you "get it" - you can add folders 
and skin paths to your portal_skins tool, but when the next version
of CMF is released, you can install the new CMF and all of the skin
stuff that comes with it is immediately available to you *without*
affecting *any* of the stuff you've customized.  If it was easy
to directly edit the skin stuff provided with CMF or Plone, you'd
probably do it eventually just to change one little thing. Then upgrading
CMF or Plone would be a nightmare. 
 
-- 

Paul Winkler
http://www.slinkp.com
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