[Zope] - learning by cloning

[Amos Latteier]

At 08:39 PM 12/10/98 +0000, Joachim Schmitz wrote:
>Iīm trying to learn how to work with Zope, by cloning the Zope-homepage,
>so far I got many hints by viewing the dtml-source. Unfortunately one
>(at least I) cannot reveal all details. For example, when I didnīt find
>the source of "sidebar_contents".

sidebar_contents is a property of type "lines" that looks something like this:

Overview|/Download/
Contributed Software|/Download/Contrib
Binary Porting Kit|/Download/ZKit/zkit-1.9.0k2.tgz

Basically it is a list of link titles and links.

Different directories can provide their own sidebar_contents properties, or
acquire them as they choose.

I didn't create this scheme, but I belive the reason a property was chosen,
rather than just iterating over the Documents and Folders in the current
directory, is to allow you to have control over exactly what links appear.

BTW, I consider the sidebar_contents arrangement pretty advanced DTML, (it
would have taken me a long to time figure it out.) So don't worry if it
seems complex, it think it is.

-Amos

P.S. When we have Document Objects as opposed to Document Methods, you
could set a property on documents to mark them for inclusion or exclusion
from things like the sidebar links.