[Zope3-dev] IMPORTANT RFS: Through the Web Site Development

[Shane Hathaway]

Stephan Richter wrote:
> Addressing Group 2, let's say I want to quickly create a NewsItem object that 
> has a couple of properties and methods. In Zope 2 I would just create a 
> ZClass, add all the properties and create a couple of scripts for the methods 
> and I am done. If ZClasses weren't so unpredictable, this should be a 
> 10-minute task. How would I do that in Zope 3? Note that writing a Python 
> module is **not** an option.
> 
> What I want to do is:
> 
> 1. Create ContentObject that inherits from this and that.
> 
> 2. Create properties in Content Object.
> 
> 3. Create methods in Content Object.
> 
> 4. Define security.
> 
> 5. Register the Content Object.
> 
> A more Zope3ish way would be to define the interface doing step 1-3 and then 
> autogenerate the Content Object skeleton. 

We should strive to reduce the need for common Zope users to write 
software.  Classes and methods are software.  Once you ask someone to 
write a class or method, you're better off letting them write an entire 
module, because you've already crossed the "software development" barrier.

Ever since I started maintaining my own Zope site, I've wanted to do two 
simple things.  I'm coming to believe that a lot of new Zope users want 
the same things:

1) Add metadata to objects following some schema that I define, and 
search based on that metadata.

2) Define what people see if they traverse directly to the object. 
Although the default view could be defined by the type of the object, I 
think the default view of something is not necessarily dependent on its 
type.

It really shouldn't ever be necessary to write any new software to do 
either of those things.  I think those simple capabilities would fulfill 
the expectations of a significant percentage of Zope users who today 
have to write software.

Shane