[Zope3-dev] Portlets vs Pagelets

[Jim Fulton]

Garrett Smith wrote:
> 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?

How do the current patterns deal with shared resources?

For example, if we have five widgets that all share the same
javascript code, we'll get 5 copies of that code.  It's
even worse for pagelets with needed visable resources like
tool bars.

> 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

I agree that this would be helpful.

Jim

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