semantics for portal folder workflow (was: Re: [Zope-CMF] trivial new portal folder type gives weird workflow/security behavior?)

[chris]

Carl Rendell wrote:

> I've done some additional testing, and now see why i'm getting the 
> 'strange' behavior.

nice one; very weird!

> So, am I crazy or what? This thing is really baking my noodle right 
> now. Why would the workflow change sub items?

well if you're crazy, then I'm with you...

btw, does anyone have a desired semantic for folder workflow? I've been 
having a think about this, I guess there are a number of possibilities. 
I wonder whether the following is sensible, although I have no idea if 
this would be readily implimentable.

'publishing' a folder simply 'publishes' all of its children
'retracting' a folder similarly 'retracts' all of its children
the 'review_state' of  the folder is then calculated on the state of its 
children:
  - 'published' if all children are 'published',
  - 'private' if all children are 'private'
  - 'mixed' otherwise.

 From the content editor's point of view I could see this behaviour as 
useful for particular folder types.

I would admit that 'mixed' probably throws a spanner in the works - but 
a folder is a composite object! I guess the other alternative is to 
programmatically over-rule the review_state of any child object. But 
then 'publishing' becomes meaningless for such children. Ho-hum, its 
pretty easy to see why the workflow of folders hadn't been attempted 
before - it doesn't seem to sit too neatly with the current concepts?

Best regards,
Chris.