[Zope-CMF] Re: Metatype() standard?

[Tres Seaver]

Marc Lindahl wrote:
> Hi Tres,
> 
> Thanks for the quick reply... important followups:
> 
> On Wednesday, March 3, 2004, at 03:38  PM, Tres Seaver wrote:
> 
>> Marc Lindahl wrote:
>>
>>> I'm crossposting this because I'm interested in feedback - is 
>>> Metatype() just a vestige of TypesTool or is it intended to be 
>>> standardized on?  I was investigating this area and found that Type() 
>>> actually returns the TITLE of the type, not the meta_type, unless 
>>> there is no title, and also that Type() is supposed to be 
>>> depreciated.  What's the real story?  Anyone know?
>>
>>
>> 'getPortalType()' should return the ID of the type object;  'Type' 
>> should return its title.  What is deprecated is using 'Type' where 
>> what you really mean is 'getPortalType', as the two may not always be 
>> the same.
> 
> 
> OK, so how does the id of the type object relate to meta_type as used in 
> products?  Are those two meant to be matched/compared?

Nope.  The CMF *never* cares about meta_type, except as a fallback for 
objects which don't have 'portal_type';  this allows the same class 
(where meta_type is typically defined) to be used as the underlying 
implementation for multiple type objects.  E.g., I can create a new 
MyDocument type object (in the types tool) which uses 
CMFDefault.Document as its underying implementation, but has different 
skins / workflow etc. associated with it, because the object gets 
'portal_type' assigned by the type object, not the class.


> Also, am I correct in stating that getPortalType returns an immutable 
> identification of the type, while Type/Title should be used only for 
> display (human readable) purposes?

Yes.

>>
>> 'Metatype()' is a fossil;
> 
> 
> OK... can someone notate that in the source?

Done.

>>  as far as I know, nothing in the CMF depends on it, except as an 
>> option to TypesTool.listContentTypes, where 'by_metatype' indicates 
>> that the returned types should be sorted by the result of 'Metatype'.
> 
> 
> ...and by chance, this is what CMFRating is doing.  OK, so I guess that 
> means listContentTypes is depreciated too?  So what should one use, to 
> get a list of types to compare to getPortalType()?

You can still call the 'listContentTypes' method, just don't pass 
'by_metatype=1' (the default is to sort by the ID of the type info object).

Tres.
-- 
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Tres Seaver                                tseaver at zope.com
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