[Zope] Management interfaces for ZPatterns applications

[Itai Tavor]

Hi,

I'm struggling with finding the best way to implement a management 
interface for a ZPatterns-based application. In the past I've 
implemented a custom interface for every application, but to keep my 
current project simple, I'd like to take advantage of the existing 
management interface. Problem is, it's not easy.

First, the manageInstances_html methods of my Specialists need to be 
integrated into the management tabs. But /manage on a Specialist 
gives me the standard Specialist management tabs, so I would have to 
create a custom Specialist-subclassed Product for every Specialist, 
just to add in my own tabs.

Second, I can't get the tabs_path to show anything useful. My 
management links use absolute_url. So if, for example, I'm viewing a 
Task at /my_site/Tasks/123/manage_edit and I click on a subtask link, 
I get /my_site/Subtasks/456/manage_edit - so the tabs_path doesn't 
show the object's context. If I avoid using absolute_url, in the same 
case I would get /my_site/Tasks/123/Subtasks/456/manage_edit, which 
is a bit more useful but also ugly and confusing.

So, what does this leave me with? Create a Python Product for the top 
level of the application and for every Specialist that needs to 
display a UI for the classes it manages. Then, override 
tabs_path_default with a method that somehow figures out the right 
path to display. And how would that work? I still think management 
links should use absolute urls, so I need to somehow build the path 
back from the displayed object, without relying on the traversal 
path. I could get every object supply a parent_id, then I would have 
to scan all the Specialists to find that parent, display it, and go 
on to locate its parent. KISS goes out the window.

Can anyone throw some ideas on how to simplify this mess? I'm 
starting to think my life would be a lot easier if I didn't use 
ZPatterns and just used object managers to store contained objects... 
but I don't want to give up ZPatterns yet...

TIA, Itai
-- 
--
Itai Tavor                      -- "Je sautille, donc je suis."    --
itai@optusnet.com.au            --               - Kermit the Frog --
-- "What he needs now is understanding... and a confederate victory" --
-- Dr. Jacobi, Twin Peaks         --