[Zope] ZCatalog and dictionary python instances variables (QUEST)

[Michel Pelletier]

Oscar Picasso wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I' trying to use ZCatalog to index some values stored in a dictionary. The
> dictionary is an instance variable of a python class which is a base for a
> ZClass.
> 
> **my python class**
> 
> class Multi:
>         def set(self):
>                 self.a = 'The a attribute'
>                 self.b = {'one' : 'un', 'two': 'deux', 'three': 'trois'}
> 
> ZMulti is a ZClass derived from Multi, and multi is a ZMulti instance.
> 
> Before Cataloging my object I run:
> <dtml-call "multi.set()">

Just to make sure you know, python classes can define an __init__ method
to initialize attributes like this.
 
> 
> But it never works.
> 
> Any help greatly appreciated.

I'd like to help, but 'But it never works' is just not enough detail for
me or anyone else to even begin to help you.

_How_ does it never work?

Does it tell you an error?

If there is an error, do you get a traceback?

Does nothing happen?

By default, nothing will happen if it _does_ work.  What are you
searching for in this case to try and match your dictionary value?  How
are you searching?  How does this not return what you expect?

Obviously a TextIndex is not what you want, that's for indexing
documents of text, and trying to text index a dictionary will be ignored
by the Catalog. So we can discard that part of your problem right off. 
FieldIndexes index a value to a sequence of documents, and that value
can be any python object.  So a FieldIndex should work just fine in this
case.

-Michel