[Zope] - A little bit about what we're doing, and a request for ideas

[David Wagle]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


Hello Zopesters!

First, I'd like to offer a big THANK YOU to Amos for being the very
best software support department I've ever encountered.

Now, on to some more interesting stuff.

Basically I'm developing a site to store procedures for our IT
departments. Each department has it's own directory wherein there are
three main folders: procedures, systems_data, and tasks_lists. Under
each of these is a main page that allows department members to either
add, modify or "check_out" a procedure/datapage/tasklist. 

Supervisors also get an option to delete.

The basic flow that I'm currently working on is the process for
adding new procedures/datapages/tasklists.

Current flow is as follows:

1. the user "logs in" at a main page and navigates to the proper
   directory main page. There they select 'add' and are given a
   template page to be saved to their local system.  They are then
   asked to fill in a form containing a bunch of "metadata" about the
   procedure.

2. This data is used to populate a database that correlates all this
   information, and makes it's later retrivial easier (actually,
   nearly trivial!)

3. The database is updated and a new directory is created with a
   unique path (generated using PrincipiaTime()+username.)

4. This path is then given to the user so that they can use the
   netscape 'publish' command to place the page, nad all accompanying
   graphics, files, whatever, onto the server.


Now, my basic question is two-fold:

first -- does this layout/process_chain look sane to everyone? 
second -- how would you improve it if you were me?

I would LIKE to allow for the elimination of step 4, and simply have
the user supply the path name at step 1. The database query could
then be run and the page uploaded "automagically." IF the users are
not including any additional files, graphics or other objects in the
page, this is easy (thanks to Amos for showing the way!).

The problem is that if the user DOES include extra stuff, it won't
get uploaded.

I've thought about it a tad and I've really got no clue on if this is
possible, or worthwhile.

I know from a user standpoint it would be -- indeed, it is actually
part of the "user requirements" that i was given. 

I'm thinking that one possible solution is to write a pythonscript or
javascript object that is sent to the user, and which would then
parse the page to be uploaded, and include the necessary files. But I
don't know if that is legitimately feasable, or how difficult it
would be to correctly implement.

I'm also not particularly open to the idea of moving to ZServer and
using FTP -- while it might make some aspects of this easier, this is
going to be a necessary system for a production environment, and
using Alpha software (even really darn nice alpha software) will not
enhance my job security :)

So, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Oh - and for testimonials -- how about "Because of Zope's increadible
easy development model and low learning curve, our project
development is 200% ahead of schedual. If we were using any other
tool set currently available for our environment, there is no way we
would be as close to role-out as we are!"

- --dave

- -------------------------------------------------
A computer system without Microsoft products is
like a dog without bricks chained to its head.
- -------------------------------------------------

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0
Charset: noconv

iQA/AwUBNq8cKNtGhckXZmDjEQJ0qwCgtMKP+2o+PBtuJUREv67D2WImzVgAoPK9
pYiPfgAL6L4KGX9vlIYagSbq
=b2MI
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----