[Zope] - Copying Zope objects programmatically

[Jim Fulton]

"A.M. Kuchling" wrote:
> 
> Continuing on my channeling, I'm now trying to let users enter a
> selected ID; a folder named with that ID would then be created and set
> up.
> 
> Creating the folder in DTML is easy:
> 
> <!--#call expr="_['user'].manage_addFolder(userid)"-->
> 
> I can even set a property on the newly created folder:
> 
> <!--#call expr="_['user'][userid].manage_addProperty('cl', 'c1 c2 c3', 'tokens')"-->
> 
> (Incidentally, these expression lines are getting awfully long.  Is
> there any way to insert newlines in them?)

Sure.  For example:

  <!--#call expr="_['user'][userid].manage_addProperty(
                    'cl', 'c1 c2 c3', 'tokens')"-->

> 
> However, I can't figure out how to create a new index_html object
> whose content is a duplicate of another default object; the third
> argument to the manage_addDocument() is never right.
> 
> <!--call expr="_['user'].manage_addDocument('index_html',
>                                             'User Page:'+userid,
>                                             _['default_user_page'].data)"-->

Is default_user_page a file or a document?

From the text below, I assume a document, but then
I wonder where you got the 'data' attribute from.

> 
> _['default_user_page'].data doesn't work. 

Right, because if _[] returns a document template, it renders it.

This is problematic.  "_['name']" should be equivalent to: "name", 
but it isn't if the value of name is callable. :(
I really should figure out a fix for this.

> str(_['default_user_page'])
> creates the page, but it also replaces < with &lt;, so the DTML on the
> resulting page doesn't work.

That's odd.  Since _[] renders DTML, you shouldn't
get the quoting.

>  How do you get the contents of the
> Document object without it being escaped?

First, you need to get the DocumentTemplate without rendering
it.  Due to details in _, which is a template dictionary, 
you have to use:

  _.getitem(name, 0)

although, if the name is a legal Python name, just
use the name directly (without _[]).

Second, to get the source, call it's 'read' method.

So, in your example, the following should work:

 <!--call expr="_['user'].manage_addDocument('index_html',
                                             'User Page:'+userid,
                                             default_user_page.read())"-->

Note that 'read' is not the greatest method name for this
and this interface isn't documented because I never thought anyone
would want it.  I've seen this question enough, however, that there
should definately be a nicer interface for it.

> Or am I barking up the wrong tree? 

No.

> Should this sort of thing be
> implemented as an ExternalMethod?

You would still need to know about the read method.

Jim

--
Jim Fulton           mailto:jim@digicool.com
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