Integrating ZMI&CMF (was: Re: [Zope-CMF] Change invokeFactory !)

[Oliver Bleutgen]

Tres Seaver wrote:

>>
>>could you qualify this a little. I.e. I'm writing my own (python)
>>product for the CMF and want to use the ZMI as a frontend. So I know my
>>product doesn't do something which is hidden somewhere in the types
>>tool, at least not hidden by me.
>>Are there some caveats I should know about?
>>
> 
> If your product defines a content type class, the site manager may
> create an arbitrairy number of content types which are backed by it;
> your object must not assume that it knows anything about which skins,
> workflows, metadata policies, etc. are bound to it.  Constructing it
> via the ZMI is going to be painful, as well, because you won't know
> which "type" your object is supposed to be.
> 
> If you plan to use this product only in your own site, then obviously
> you can choose not to observe these guidelines, as you, the prouct
> developer, will know exactly how you, the site manager, will be using
> your class.
> 
> Tres.

Thanks for your answer,
I'll just add one snippet so that perhaps this may help someone else who 
also wants to "integrate" ZMI and CMF. One thing I did to get some of 
the flexiblity the CMF offers into the ZMI interface is dynamically 
constructing ZMI's manage_options from the types tool's getActions().


def _manage_options(self):
     """private methods to dynamically construct manage_options for the 
  ZMI via ComputedAttribute"""
     all_product_actions = self.getTypeInfo().getActions()
     product_actions = filter(lambda x: x['category'] == 'object', 
all_product_actions)
     my_actions_list = []
     for a in product_actions:
         ma = {}
         ma['label'] = a['name']
         ma['action'] = a['action']
         my_actions_list.append(ma)
     my_actions = tuple(my_actions_list)
     options = my_actions + self._core_options
     return options

manage_options = ComputedAttribute(_manage_options,1)


cheers,
oliver