[Zope-CMF] info about Zope action objects!

Phil Glaser StillSmallVoice@DirectvInternet.com
Fri, 9 Aug 2002 14:35:40 -0400


Hi Alan,

> cant guide you, but I can point you towards them and say "explore Davy
> Crockett"

Or, since the endeavor is similar to archeology, "explore Indiana Jones"!

Perhaps, Alan, you could read the results of my excavations and tell me at
least if I'm on the right track as well as answer the questions I'm running
into.

Taking the overview of the portal_actions tool at face value -- that it
"assembles the "actions" which are germane to the current user" -- it seems
to me that to understand portal_actions we need to understand the sources
from which it "assembles" them. Referring again to the overview, the sources
of actions are: the workflow tool, the membership tool, and the types tool.
("Global" actions can be created only in the portal_actions tool, as well,
but I'll leave those aside for a minute). Actually, I see a number of other
tools listed under the "Action providers" tab in the portal_actions tool.
Are these other sources of actions that portal_actions should be
registering?

Conceptually, then, it seems that portal_actions is meant to be a
clearinghouse for determining which actions pertain to a given object, or
set of objects, that you are working with. Leaving aside for now global
actions, it is just a unified view into the other "action providers."

But I'm having trouble seeing how this works in real life. In the types
tool, if I click the "Event" type, and then go the Actions tab, I find the
following three actioins defined: event_view, event_edit_form, and
metadata_edit_form. I would have thought, given all that we've said, that
these three actions would show up in the list of actions I find in the
portal_actions tool. But they do not! I checked the "Action Providers" tab
and initially found that the portal_types tool was not among the listed
providers, so I added it. BUt the event actions still do not show up in the
portal_actions tool. Can you elaborate on what I might be missing here?

It also seems to me that there is a much deeper truth about the way Zope
works -- so deep, I suspect, that it may be hard to articulate. Basically
this whole thing is data driven. Which buttons and forms and links show up
in any given place appears to be largely governed by types and actions. This
is deep stuff. I have faith that this is all leading me to enlightenment, to
Zope Zen, but I definitely feel like I'm going through the dark night of the
Zopista, here.

By the way, in case anyone is interested, the best information I could find
on the types tool are: the relevant section of
http://cmf.zope.org/Members/beehive/ZWACKChap5.html, which provides a
conceptual understanding, and
http://cmf.zope.org/Members/tseaver/how_tos/taming_types_tool/view, which
gets into the APIs.

Many thanks!!!

Regards,

Phil