[Zope-CMF] ZMI-based CMF features

[Darcy Clark]

> Darcy Clark wrote:
> 
> > I'd like to integrate some CMF-type features into the standard
> > ZMI (Zope Management Interface). I want to do this for 2 reasons :
> > 
> > 1. I'm lazy - the ZMI takes care of a lot of basic infrastructure,
> > I don't want to code interfaces for everything
> > 2. I like the ZMI interface
> > 
> > Basically the CMF feature that I want most is Workflow. I downloaded
> > DCWorkflow and a patch to make it work outside of a CMF 
> site, so now my plan
> > is to create some content types based on 
> CMFCore:PortalContent and add some
> > additional tabs and buttons to the ZMI to handle the 
> Workflow features.
> > 
> > So I have two questions to those with more Zen than I :
> > 
> > 1. Can this work ?
> 
> 
> Potentially, yes.  One issue will be that you will have to have
> much of the CMF in place anyway, becase it is "infrastructure"
> rather than UI.  For instance, the association between workflows
> and content types is stored in the workflow tool;  other type-
> specific policies (discussability, actions, etc.) are stored in
> the types tool.
> 
> It is possible now to interact with CMF content via the ZMI,
> although that has not been our main focus.  What you will
> miss out on is the "basic infrastructure" provided
> by the CMF's UI:  action lists (somewhat analogous to the
> 'manage_options' tabs) which are workflow aware; "work lists"
> (user actions conditioned by content being in certain workflow
> states), and skinnability.

Thanks for the reply. I guess the next step is to work out how to reproduce
the workflow elements of the CMF UI in a ZMI-based UI. I imagine that clues
on how this would be done could be found in the "actions_box" method in the
CMF Demo site. Is there any other code in the CMF Demo site that might be
useful ?

cheers,

Darcy

> 
> Tres.
> -- 
> ===============================================================
> Tres Seaver                                tseaver@zope.com
> Zope Corporation      "Zope Dealers"       http://www.zope.com
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