[Zope] selected in select lists

[Garry Saddington]

Tino Wildenhain wrote:

>Am Freitag, den 14.10.2005, 20:03 +0100 schrieb Garry Saddington:
>  
>
>>Chris Withers wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Garry Saddington wrote:
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>DTML:
>>>><select name="groupabbrev">
>>>><dtml-in getpastoralgroups>
>>>><option value="<dtml-var thisgroupabbrev>" <dtml-if 
>>>>expr="groupabbrev==_.str(thisgroupabbrev)"> selected</dtml-if> 
>>>> ><dtml-var thisgroupabbrev></option>
>>>></dtml-in>
>>>></select>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>And just for comparison, here's the ZPT:
>>>
>>><select name="groupabbrev"
>>>        tal:define="abbrev context/groupabbrev">
>>>  <tal:i repeat="group context/getpastoralgroups"
>>>  <option tal:define="thisAbbrev group/thisgroupabbrev"
>>>          tal:attributes="value thisAbbrev;
>>>                          selected python:abbrev==thisAbbrev"
>>>          tal:content="thisAbbrev"/>
>>></select>
>>>
>>>Stop using DTML ;-)
>>>
>>>Chris
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>This code does not work;-). If I always work in the ZMI and do not 
>>collaborate with designers on database web applications where the data
>>is more important than the presentation, can you give me a good reason 
>>for not using DTML. I find DTML more intuitive than ZPT and once you get 
>>the hang of
>>the namespace magic thing it is not that bad. The ZPT code above seems 
>>to me more complex and it has defined two new variables, whereas the 
>>DTML only has two variables
>>and a string conversion.
>>Regards
>>Garry
>>ps. I would use ZPT if I could see a valid reason to do so.
>>    
>>
>
>The example above is unfortunatly a bit bad from app design view.
>You should either do the comparison in your ZSQL Method
>or wrap the call to the ZSQL method in a simple python script.
>
>Then all your ZPT reduces to:
>
><select name="groupabbrev">
> <option 
>    tal:repeat="group here/getpastoralgroups"
>    tal:attributes="value group/groupabbrev; selected group/selected"
>    tal:content="thisgroupabbrev"> Example </option>
></select>
>
>Which is imho much better to read then the code above.
>All you need to do is to deliver True/False, None/Something
>for the "selected" field. 
>
>Not doing the comparison in your Template (no matter if DTML
>or ZPT) really makes live easier.
>
>You should try to get your Application right independend of
>any HTML output. (e.g. you can call the scripts/ZPTs directly
>to find out whats going on)
>
>HTH
>Tino Wildenhain
>
>
>
>  
>
The comparison is dynamic. The user selects an option, that option is 
passed to a formhandler and hence back to the referring method.  How 
could I not do the comparison in this method? If it could be done in a 
python script as you say, why should I inject another layer of 
complexity into my application when the one dtml method will do the job?
imho such a problem as selected in selects should have a well documented 
solution as many developers will need it and why should each one have to 
find the solution for themselves?
I think Zope is the most important technology on the Internet at 
present, with the possibility to become really huge, but if every 
developer has to search so hard for solutions as I have had to, it will 
forever be a niche product.
regards
Garry