[Zope3-dev] Content Types: What are they? Do we need them for Zope 3

[Paul Everitt]

On samedi, nov 16, 2002, at 22:13 Europe/Paris, Martijn Faassen wrote:

> Jim Fulton wrote:
>> Historically, Zope has a notion of "type" that has not been
>> very well defined.

Two additional wrinkles on this:

1) "Widgets".  The work by Shane on "page designs" concentrates on a 
higher-level abstraction for how Site Developers construct sites.  
Shane blessed this sentence (my words) as the starting point:

"A UI for Site Developers is *one of* the user interfaces needed for 
Zope 3.  With this UI, a Site Developer will customize existing 
components and work them into pages in the site structure.  Page 
designs can provide the visual and logical model for how a Site 
Developer assembles the site."

For instance, a widget might be a Poll that you drag from a palette of 
widgets, drop in a column on a template, and fill in the properties to 
configure.  (Shane, is this right?)

It isn't clear at what stage we are in this page design thinking.  But 
if an idea such as "widget" emerges, it will be another facet in the 
discussion of content type vs. meta_type vs. portal_type vs. component 
(interface).

I'm certainly not saying that widget is a content type.  Only that the 
relation between widget and the other things needs to be pretty clear 
(if there becomes such a thing as widget).

On to the second wrinkle on content types.

2) XML.  It is early to tell whether Zope 3 will have an XML story, 
beyond configuration directives.  As Craeg suggested, the discussion of 
content type might have some relation to an XML story.

For instance, imagine that someone versed in XML-oriented content 
management takes a look at a Zope 3 system.  Just for grins, let's 
label this person an "XML-oriented information architect" (hee hee).  
What will be their expectation of a "content type" and an instance of 
this type?

If they want to make a subtle derivation of a "content type", how might 
they expect it do it?

I'm not sure whether it's appropriate to bring this up at this point, 
as I'm not sure if "XML-oriented information architect" is really 
meaningful or in-bounds.  As I've told Jim in private, I have some 
strong feelings on this, but maybe it is too early to float the 
discussion.

--Paul