[Zope] Storing Data inside Zope

[J Cameron Cooper]

>
>
>I'm using the Client/Cases/Detail/etc granularity and making each record a
>single object (using File objects for testing) in an appropriate data folder
>(e.g. Case/Data, Client/Data or maybe Data/Client, Data/Case).  I create
>properties with field names and assign them the field values.  That way I
>can use the ZMI to create/clone/edit/delete 'data records' easily in
>addition to my programs.  I'm using Formulator so I can tap the field
>definitions programmatically to get the info needed to define the File data
>object properties appropriately for each field.  I thought about making a
>template File data object and cloning it as needed but I haven't figured out
>how to do that yet.  Besides the dynamic Formulator approach lets me change
>form AND 'table' definitions in one spot which is nice for development.
>
Sounds like you might like

http://www.zope.org/Members/mjablonski/PropertyObject

and friends.

>Being shiny new to Zope I'm still grasping the building blocks but thought
>ZClasses sounded like what might be useful for this.  Thanks for letting me
>know that might not be a good idea.  I'll continue to fumble through
>alternate approaches.  It's painfully slow but at least it's interesting.
>
ZClasses does seem like a good idea. But regular products aren't that 
hard (esp. with mxmEasyProduct) and they're more portable, more 
powerful, and usually more understandable than the current ZClasses idea 
and implementation. I think that PropertyObject/Abracadabra is a good 
player in the TTW-product area. Also, Plone's Archetypes (which also 
works in vanilla CMF) is very cool: based on a simple schema it'll make 
an object/type with the right forms and properties, even with actions 
and input validation. Dunno if it's quite far enough along yet to be 
newbie usable, but it's almost to a release and should be included in 
future Plones. CMF/Plone might be a little much to swallow at the same 
time, but if you're interested,

http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/*checkout*/archetypes/Archetypes/docs/archetypes_paper.html?rev=1.1
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/archetypes/Archetypes/docs/quickref.rst?rev=1.6&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup
http://sourceforge.net/projects/archetypes
http://www.plone.org/
http://cmf.zope.org/

          --jcc