[Zope] E-TML ??

Jason Cunliffe jasonic@nomadicsltd.com
Wed, 29 Dec 1999 10:36:56 +0100


Hello

1. I want to be able to email dtml directly to some zopesites and have them
accept my email, parse the headers/message body so that DMTL autmoatically
will be uploaded, and/or overwritten, all without any need to manually ever
go near a web browser.

2. To be able to send email to make various 'calls' to the site.. 

3. To have a bunch of Zopesites tuned to a special zopista newsgroup. 
Posting to the newsgroup would allow timestamped threaded data/messages to
be parsed in correct order. 

One wierd and to me wonderful feature of this would be to allow the news
thread structure to dictate the Zope acquisition context. The participating
Zope sites would have many layers, conpnents and methods realting to
spatial-temporal data. Upgrades and linked metadata for these coudl thus be
directed simply and __visibly__ by posting and subscribing to the
'smart-zope' newsgroup. 

The contexts ordering and behaviour of the elements at many sites could
thus be remotely shared and controlled. Local access to to each site could
then be monitored by triggering 'reply' posts to the newsgroup thread. At a
glance one could then see  the action across a set of intelinked sites.  A
special 'mission control' zope site could also parse these newsgroup thread
datasets and visualize them plus have overview Admin web pages.. 
 
Any ideas/inspiration how best to do this?


It would obviously be necessary to have a core 'product' or External method
ready to accept such messages. And likewise, to have a _minimal_ syntax for
such messages:

Mostly the body mesasges  woudl be 3 types:
- clean DMTL [if that exists ;-)]
- Python 
- data  [structured text?/XML?]
++ binaries which could be the usual, plus graphic specific ones, plus
perhasp Python pickled/shelved objects

Am I crazy - is this a montrous idea representing a huge amountof work?
Or is this somthign which could in fact be simply implremented, its power
coming from the emergent positive effects of multiple sites and use over time?

Thanks for any comments
- Jason

__________________________________________________________________________
Jason CUNLIFFE = NOMADICS.(Interactive Art and Technology).Design Director