[Zope] RE:How do I merge form & URL vars into sql easily

[R. David Murray]

On Fri, 7 Jul 2000, Michael Blewett wrote:
> trial and error (and guidance from this list), I came up with these 
> conclusions (which I'm sure someone will shoot down if I am wrong):
> 1) The request object you are setting with your REQUEST.set command is like 
> a big bucket that gets passed between one web page and the next when you 
> call it in your DTML. The best thing someone ever showed me was how to view 

Not that you are wrong, but just a bit of clarification for those
people who also haven't quite grasped the stateless nature of
http transactions:  it is probably better to say that the REQUEST
object gets passed (by the DTML machinery invisibly or by calling
dtml methods using the "methodname(_.None,_)" pattern) around
between one *method* and the next.

Once you generate an output page, the user views it, and then clicks
again, you have a brand new REQUEST object that can only get values
from the *new* web page.  Others have been tripped by this, expecting
the REQUEST fields to automatically carry over from one form to
the next.  They don't, unless you explicitly put hidden fields into
your form to store the variables values for the next REQUEST.
But as long as you are still server side and making DTML calls,
REQUEST is there.

--RDM