[Zope3-dev] Portlets vs Pagelets

[Garrett Smith]

Jim Fulton wrote:
> I'd like to suggest a more important distinction between
> portlets and pagelets.  Portlets are largely under the user's
> control.  User's can choose, configure and arrange portlets for
> themselves.  As a result, the system has to track portlet information
> by user, as well as default portlet information.
> 
> I suggest that pagelets are components used by the page author to
> construct pages.  To tie the two together, a portlet slot might be
> implemented as a pagelet.
> 
> I suggest that the most important goal of a pagelet framework
> is to provide a framework for page construction, including management
> of shared resources and resource dependencies.

This is helpful.

To reiterate my earlier observation, we already have a number of
page-construction facilities/patterns. What are the major problems with
the current system that need to be addressed?

For my $0.2, the next step in Zope3's UI evolution would be to formalize
the existing patterns, including:

- identifying and documenting them
- using them consistently
- adding ZCML directives and utility functions/super-classes where
appropriate

In doing this, we may come up with new terms (e.g. pagelet, etc.) that
are helpful, or not.

 -- Garrett