[Zope] Re: Zope in intranet - the cool apps?

[Mark Bucciarelli]

On Wednesday 07 August 2002 04:11 pm, Simon Michael wrote:
> Hi Mark, thanks for your post.
>
> Mark Bucciarelli <mark@easymailings.com> writes:
> > I didn't find it that hard to integrate zwiki into an otherwise total=
ly
> > zpt site.  The hard part as far as moving to zpt is to pull all the
> > layout code (dtml statements) from the python.  For example, all the =
'<a
> > href' stuff.
>
> I'm not sure what you mean here. What did you do with zwiki, exactly ?
>

I put a zwiki example inside my site, with my site menu at the top.  My e=
ntire=20
site has the following functionality: if it's your first time visiting, y=
ou=20
get a welcome and an opportunity to enter a nickname.  If you use cookies=
,=20
great--you see this page once.  If you don't, you see this page once per=20
session (yes, obnoxious, I know but I'm guessing most people allow cookie=
s). =20
(Actually, even if your browser allows cookies, you can opt not to take.)

Anyway, if someone does not use cookie, or opts not to allow a cookie, I =
lose=20
this session information once I get into the wiki.  To fix this, I need t=
o be=20
able to append the _ZopeId to each link INSIDE the wiki.  Since the links=
=20
DTML is generated inside python scripts, I figured I would need to hack t=
he=20
python scripts to make this fix.

I've got a work around, but it's not great.

This issue is seperate from this thread--when bulding an url, the zwiki s=
hould=20
look for a _ZopeId in the request.  If it's there, and there's zwiki cook=
ies,=20
then append ?_ZopeId=3D to every link.

> > I think it would be better to have the python process a DTML document=
,
> > and return some data structure (list or a dictionary) that the zpt
> > template lays out.
>
> Yes, I became a little clearer on this yesterday. Here's how I think zw=
iki
> could approach ZPTs (can I call them Page Templates, or are they Zope
> Presentation Templates ?):

Page Templates

>
> 1. allow the "forms" - editform, subscribeform & backlinks - to be defi=
ned
>    as ZPTs. Would mean changing editform(), backlinks() & subscribeform=
().
>

Great!  With the current zwiki, I could not style these consistent with t=
he=20
rest of my site, since they don't use the dtml header and footer.  Major=20
improvement, for me.

> 2. allow the main page layout to be defined as a ZPT
>    ("standard_wiki_page", "page_layout", "mainview" ?). Would mean
>    changing (or adding new) render_ methods. Currently they all render =
and
>    pre/append the DTML methods to the rendered page content as their fi=
nal
>    step. Instead they would now render the ZPT, passing the rendered pa=
ge
>    data into it's namespace for inclusion (right ?).
>

Bear with me, I'm pretty new to Zope.  Let me repeat back to you ... the =
way=20
zwiki works is:

you modified the render method of each zwiki page so that first it parses=
 the=20
page contents (building a href links, applying tags <H1>, <p>, <DTML>, et=
c.)=20
and produces DTML. Then it prepends the header and appends the footer and=
=20
returns one big DTML string.  Zope then processes the DTML document and t=
urns=20
it into HTML.

I think it would be a good idea to split the header, body, footer into th=
ree=20
slots that the ZPT lays out.  For the header, you could define a python=20
structure that the tal or DTML lays out as they like.  Something like

    {'last modified':'Zippy on today',=20
    'history_tree': ({'name1': 'url'},=20
                        {'name2': 'sub_url'},=20
                        {'name3': 'sub_sub_url'},=20
     ...}

This approach would probably work with the footer as well.

I can't figure out how to do a similar thing for the body, since it's so=20
unstructured.  Actually, I did think of a way:

   tal:define=3D"body python:getWikiPage"
   tal:repeat=3D"block body/blocks
      tal:condition=3D"python:block.isParagraph()"
      tal:condition=3D"python:block.isHeader1()"
      tal:condition=3D"python:block.isHeader2()"
      tal:condition=3D"python:block.isHeader3()"
      tal:condition=3D"python:block.isHorizontalRule()"
      tal:repeat=3D"token repeat/block/token
        tal:condition=3D"python:token.isLink()

blech--can you imagine designing a slower page?

I'm not sure about your name space question (I'm kind of new to Zope).  C=
ould=20
it work like this?  When they click on a page, the render method calls th=
e=20
page layout ZPT, passing the page name in the URL.  The ZPT fills three=20
slots: header, body and footer, by calling three python scripts and passi=
ng=20
the page name as an argument.

Wiki is such a cool thing, I'm having a hard time thinking about how to=20
seperate logic from presentation from content.  For example, I don't see =
how=20
it would be possible to write useful unit tests for the python part of th=
e=20
logic outside of zope.  With the other product (NuxWidgets TimeTable) I'v=
e=20
messed with, the seperation has been clear.  I can just fire up python,=20
import the code, and write my tests--no messing around with Zope.app().

Mark


> At this stage,
>
> - you should be able to fully control the wiki's appearance by editing
> these four ZPTs.
>
> - ZWikiPage still inherits from DTML Document, and dtml-enabled wikis a=
nd
> pages such as zwikidotorg's default UserOptions, RecentChanges and
> SearchPage still execute embedded dtml.
>
> - the ZPT provides an additional dynamic parsing stage for the page, wh=
ere
>   you can do site-wide, admin controlled stuff - sounds useful
>
> 3. implement UserOptions/RecentChanges/SearchPage in some other way tha=
n
>    DTML, allowing you to purge DTML entirely from your wiki. For those =
who
>    want that. :) (Personally, I want embedded restricted python).
>
> 4. make it so that each zwiki page is a ZPT. This should make it easier=
 to
>    edit a page with WYSIWYG tools. After an edit, zwiki would extract t=
he
>    essential body (eg strip the header & footer) for inclusion in the
>    standard site ZPT.
>
> -Simon
>
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