[Zope-dev] wygiwys

[Andreas Kostyrka]

On Tue, 14 Sep 1999, Michael Bernstein wrote:

Well, wysiwyg is difficult with Zope. Here is why:
1.) <dtml-var testvar>
    Well, that one is easy, it seems: Just display it as some button or
    so, labeled testvar.
    But in ZOPE, testvar in fact could produce quite much data. It could
    even genereate say table parts. And here your WYSIWYG is shot.
2.) <dtml-if>
    That one is already getting problematic. How do you handle that one?
3.) <dtml-in>
    That's cool. A WYSIWYG programming editor ;)

More generally speaking the generated HTML code for a ZOPE DTML object (be
it method or document) depends on quite a number of things:
standard_html_header/standard_html_footer.
   Without these you loose much of the cool functionality of ZOPE.
submethods.
   For example in my websites, standard_html_header usually includes a
   standard_navbar.
DTML.
   The content as such of your object can contain quite a "script".
   Including:
   - includes (dtml-var)
   - conditionals (dtml-if)
   - loops (dtml-in)
   - complicated python expressions.
   - namespaces (dtml-let)
   - REQUEST manipulation (<dtml-call "REQUEST.set(....)">)

Basically, with ZOPE you get three developer categories:
-) programmer.
-) HTML designer.
-) content provider.

This basically holds true for any dynamic website:
-) you cannot expect the content provider "e.g. journalists" to know
   about HTML etc. They just know how to add predeclared Z and python
   classes.
-) Well, I'm one of programmer category. While I know HTML, you wouldn't
   care for the resulting web design ;)
-) Most webdesigners know HTML quite well, but treat any dynamic (DTML)
   content as Copy&Paste stuff.

But then, I'm also all for an WYSIWYG tool for Zope. I just doubt that you
can provide the power of ZOPE (Acquisition, small building blocks, etc.)
with a WYSIWYG interface, as it involves basically programming.

Andreas
--
Andreas Kostyrka                     | andreas@mtg.co.at
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