[Zope-CMF] Compound elements status

[Florent Guillaume]

Jeffrey P Shell  <jeffrey@cuemedia.com> wrote:
> This is why I'm not necessarily thinking of the CMF in my current design
> phase.  In my design, I say that the workflow question is moot so long as
> the parts are contained in the document.  I think that Parts (Elements) are
> simpler than the current CMF Default content types, because they won't need
> as many actions or a comprehensive set of meta data (ie, Dublin Core).
> They're just parts of the greater whole, and that greater whole is
> responsible for that data.

That makes sense.

[...]
> > Does this mean that in your system the ZMI cannot see the individual
> > parts ? Or are the parts not Types managed by the Types Tool ?
> 
> They are not types managed by the types tool, but they might be Parts
> managed by the Parts Tool :).  My system is not being written for the CMF,
> but it is being written for the possibility of the CMF.  :)  Basically, I'm
> taking design ideas and patterns from my own past experiences, but also from
> Formulator, ZPatterns, Zope 3, and OpenDoc.  So, it should be a fairly
> pluggable system.
> 
> The ZMI would not see the individual parts, at least not as normal Zope
> objects.  The management screens would be more geared towards a content
> head.  Do you ever look at the contents of a Word document with embedded
> images and spreadsheet parts as a folder?  It's just not a natural paradigm
> in my opinion.  Everything may be stored as a tree underneath the surface,
> but that's not necessarily the best view into the content.

I still think it's a pity that the parts don't have a life of their own
in the OFS/ZMI. And yes, I'd like to be able to see all the embeded
stuff in a composite document from MS Word or OpenOffice.

> Granted, the web has changed our views of documents, where all the objects
> that get embedded into a page are separate objects in the file
> system/database/universe, so maybe the paradigm has shifted some.  But I
> don't think my target users right now think in those terms.

Yes, all depends on the final client after all.

Florent

-- 
Florent Guillaume, Nuxeo (Paris, France)
+33 1 40 33 79 10  http://nuxeo.com  mailto:fg@nuxeo.com