[Zope3-Users] newbie design questions for UI to external data

[Shaun Cutts]

Hello,

I'm trying to write a zope3 UI for data in an RDBMS with python business
logic. (Hence updates shouldn't go directly to the database; queries are
probably best off using the marshalling code in business logic as well,
but could use direct query if its especially easy.)

I was trying to adapt Stephan Ritcher's Zope3 book examples, but am
getting a bit snarled with escaping from/interacting with the ZODB.

For a collection of objects that live in the DDBMS, should I try to
implement a collection object that itself lives in the ZODB (inherits
from Persistent, implements IContainer), but really performs a query to
get its data?

Then I need to mark actual contents volatile (?) Is there a hook to set
the volatile contents?

Also, it would be good to have a simple admin object in the ZODB that
has DB connection info. Putting one there and making it accessible via
Zope3 seems easy enough -- just inherit from Persistent.... But how do I
access this info from, say, my collection object(s). Does Persistent
generate a standard key?

Or should I have one big "database" object in ZODB that has attributes
for the connection, and also attributes for each of the collections.
This seems easy enough, but then I wonder if the zcml config will become
tricky, as I would have to declare forms for attributes of instances
(somehow)?

When using the standard forms, I got errors for not setting __name__ and
__parent__ on my contained objects. The first was easy enough, but who
is supposed to set __parent__?

I want to use standard forms if possible for the moment, as I am trying
to get up a prototype fast. Eventually I will need a paged view. Is
there one out there to use?

In general, if there is a good example of something like I am trying to
do, I would be grateful if someone could point me to it.

- Shaun Cutts