[Zope] - How to circumvent url to object mapping ? (correction)

[Jim Fulton]

Guido Sohne wrote:
> 
> I want to have a URL called say,
> 
> http://www.webstar.com.gh/articles/1998/01/15/Ashanti_Records_Record_Revenues
> 
> which should map to a python method/object that queries an external
> database with the arguments 1998+01+15+Ashanti_Records_Record_Revenues

Do you mean 4 arguments? Or do you mean one arguments
with strings concatinated with '+'?
 
> Is there a way to do this *without* using Apache rewrite rules ?

Sure.  The most direct way is to use the __bobo_traverse__ protocol.

If an object implements:

  def __bobo_traverse__(self, REQUEST, name):
     "Return an object for the given name"
     ....

Then this method will be called when traversing URLs.

Something like the following should work:

  class Articles(...):
    ...

    def __bobo_traverse__(self, REQUEST, name):
	return ArticleFinder(name)

  class ArticleFinder:
     def __init__(self, name):
        self._args=(name,)

     def __bobo_traverse__(self, REQUEST, name):
        self._args=self._args+(name,)
        if len(self._args)==4: 
           # We have enough to find an article:
           return self._getArticle()
	return self

     def _getArticle(self):
        """Get an article from an external database, 
	given self._args"""
        ...

Note that if you had a Z SQL Method, named 'articles'
that took arguments 'year', 'month', 'day', and 
'subject', you could call it with a URL like:

  http://www.webstar.com.gh/articles/year/1998/month/01/day/15/subject/Ashanti_Records_Record_Revenues  

and it would extract an object from the database, assuming
that the object was uniquely identified by the arguments.

You could also add additional steps in the URL to traverse 
article methods, subobject, etc.

Jim

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