[Zope-CMF] CMF for intranets, CMF inside CMF etc

larry_prikockis@NatureServe.org larry_prikockis@NatureServe.org
Fri, 8 Feb 2002 14:45:32 -0500


Hi Babu, Jon and others...

   I'm also tinkering around with using the CMF for an intranet and am up
against pretty much the same issues.  I'm certainly newer to Python and Zope
than either of you (but trying to catch up quickly after just returning from
the Python 10 conference and being very impressed!)--- but I'm happy to
offer my $.02 where possible :-)

Actually, speaking of the conference, David Cooper presented a tool called
WISE (web information something environment?) that apparently NATO is using
for intranet functions at several dozen locations. It's all custom stuff
built on top of Zope (*not* the CMF if I remember correctly- though it
provides similar functionality).   It looked like exactly like what a lot of
us would love to get our hands on... unfortunately, it's not politically or
practically feasible for them to generalize their code and release it
(darn!)

I'd be interested in collaborating with anyone interested in replicating
some of the cool WISE functionality though (particularly, the javascript
drag & drop function for layout of various content objects!)


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jon Edwards [mailto:jon@pcgs.freeserve.co.uk]
> Sent: Friday, February 08, 2002 12:42 PM
> To: Zope-Cmf
> Cc: vsbabu@vsbabu.org
> Subject: [Zope-CMF] CMF for intranets, CMF inside CMF etc 
> 
> 
> > Anybody got any hints/pointers on using CMF for building
> > intranets? It is a perfect fit in my - so far limited -
> > knowledge about it. But I can't figure out a way to
> > satisfy the following structure
> 
> Hi Babu,
> 
> I've been working on similar problems for a while. I'll be 
> releasing an
> add-on/product, for CMF 1.2/ZPT, soon at http://www.medzope.org (don't
> bother with the current donload, it's pretty old and clunky 
> DTML) - but if
> you want my code in the meantime, I'll happily share it. I'm 
> using your
> IEEditor, so it's only fair! ;-)
> 
> (NB. though we're targetting healthcare orgs, the underlying 
> code is pretty
> generic)
> 
> The approach I've taken is to have one CMF instance (rather than
> CMFs-within-CMFs), but to create an "Organisation" (or 
> "Department" for
> intranets) type - similar to PortalContentFolder
> (http://www.zope.org/Members/efge/PortalContentFolder) so that it is
> workflow- and catalog-aware.
> 
> Then sub-classed the CatalogTool (see Seb's how-to
> http://cmf.zope.org/Members/seb/CreateCatalogTool/view) so it 
> stores the
> org_id of each object - plus a few other properties like 
> 'parentfolder',
> 'org_type' and 'menusortorder' that make it easier to do navigation,
> sorting, searching, etc. Storing them in the catalog means 
> you don't have to
> hack each content-type just to add a few properties.
> 
> As far as the Members stuff goes, we found that clients 
> wanted most intranet
> content to be available to all users - though stored in 
> "Departments" to
> make it easier to navigate. I'm planning to follow Seb's 
> thoughts and create
> "Workgroups" for those areas that need special access 
> restrictions (see the
> FAQs on the Dogbowl)
> 
> We're setting up a Calendar/Events folder for each dept, with 
> a "Today's
> Events" frontpage (which I'm still struggling to get the 
> catalog-query for!
> :-) ...then a summary at root of all Today's Events for all 
> depts. - you can
> use the Subject values for Events to give different types - vacation,
> meeting, etc - though I think I'm going to use the types-tool 
> to create
> different types from Event.
> 
> You can have different a stylesheet for any folder. I want to 
> also make it
> so that you can pick a different main_template for different 
> levels, but
> haven't worked out how to do that with ZPT yet - cos all the xxxx_view
> methods have the main_template name hardcoded in their 
> header, and I don't
> think you can replace that with a variable?
> 
> Anyway, enough rambling, hope that helps! :-)
> 
> Cheers, Jon
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Zope-CMF maillist  -  Zope-CMF@zope.org
> http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-cmf
> 
> See http://www.zope.org/Products/PTK/Tracker for bug reports 
> and feature requests
>