[Zope] Products : dependencies (or who's on first?)

[Seb Bacon]

> Okay, here goes :
>
> I installed the PTK product some time ago, decided that it wasn't where I
> needed to be right now and moved on to something else.
>
> Today I finally decided to delete it from my Products folder. Shortly
> afterwards, I noticed that both my existing FlexFAQ and ZDiscussion
> objects were "broken" (with the little broken icons in the manager
> view.) and Zope was spewing errors to STDOUT complaining that it "Could
> not load oid" (I'm sorry, I don't have the traceback...doh!)

<snip>

OK, here goes for an almost completely useless answer based on guesswork and
half-memories.  More of an extra call for help from the zope experts,
really.

AFAIK this kind of problem is caused by incorrect management of products.
For example,   you'll get grief if you delete a product from the control
panel but it still exists in your products folder in your zope distribution.
I guess the ZODB is somehow out of sync with the filesystem, and this is why
you're getting 'dependency' errors.

Umm, help me out someone - this is all guesswork on my part...

As for solutions, some people have suggested sorting the problem out by
going into the ZODB itself via an interactive python shell and poking around
(there was a recent mail about this on the list).  If all else fails, you
could try getting a fresh Data.fs and importing your old data into it, and
reinstalling the products you use.  I too have learned the hard way, and now
I back up my Data.fs before messing with products beyond my ken, but this is
of course not helpful advice for you right now.

This problem comes up again and again.  If my guesswork is right <g> then
this is all because the product management process is ambiguous,
undocumented (...), and lets you do things you shouldn't.  Is there a HOWTO
on this anywhere?  Should product management be easier?  Should there at
least be some warnings added at appropriate places in the interface?  Or
have I got the whole thing totally wrong?!

Hope that helped just a little bit at least ;>

seb