[Zope] DTML rendering from python?

[Dylan Reinhardt]

At 07:38 AM 1/22/2003, Michiel Toneman wrote:
>The
>problem is that the DTML tag I add to the output of getHTML doesn't get
>rendered in my DTML Document when I call the object.

I hate when people on a programming list answer a simple question by 
telling the poster not to do something the way they're doing it, but here 
goes:  Don't do it that way.

DTML and ZPT are available for rendering HTML.  Don't do it in your product 
code.  Just don't.  Seriously, don't.

In a product, it's a far better strategy to define your user interface by 
using ZPT or DTML in stand-alone files in the product folder.  It would 
appear you already know how to set up and call such pages, but allow me to 
suggest a couple things.

First, use:
index_html = DTMLFile('dtml/viewArticlePage', globals())

There's no good reason to call the extra function.  If viewArticlePage 
needs additional logic, call something in your product.

Second, use DTML how it's designed, namely for inserting dynamic 
information into a pre-defined layout.  Re-factor until *all* of your HTML 
is done in a templating language and your product only contains non-layout 
data.  Seriously... not one extra   in your data!

Having done that, your user interfaces will stay isolated while you focus 
on using Python for the truly important/difficult stuff like getting your 
security assertions right, managing your data and performing your logic 
correctly.

I doubt that was the answer you were looking for, but I suspect it's the 
one you will find most helpful in the long run.  I made the mistake of 
doing all my HTML rendering in code in my first real product and I ended up 
regretting it deeply.

Dylan