[Zope3-dev] RFC - Implement Views As Adapters

[Shane Hathaway]

On Tuesday 15 June 2004 12:24 pm, Jim Fulton wrote:
> At:
>
>    http://dev.zope.org/Zope3/ImplementViewsAsAdapters
>
> I've written a proposal for simplifying the way we create views
> by modeling skins and layers as marjer interface and then using
> standard adapters.  This eleiminates the need for the presentation
> service and the specialized view APIs. It also provide some performance
> improvement, although I don't know whether it is significant.
>
> Comments are welcome. I'd like to implement this for X3.1.

This sounds like an excellent way to rework views.  In my view, skins serve 
two primary purposes: to customize the appearance of an application, and to 
vary appearance depending on who is coming in and how.  Since we can already 
customize applications using the Zope 3 configuration machinery, one of the 
needs for skins has already dropped out, IMHO.  Varying the appearance 
depending on who and how can be addressed well by your proposal.  I envision 
people defining IGuestBrowserRequest, IAdministratorBrowserRequest, 
IExtranetBrowserRequest, ITinyScreenBrowserRequest, etc.  (That might lead to 
wild interface combinations like 
IAdministratorUsingATinyScreenOnTheExtranetBrowserRequest, but hopefully no 
one ever actually has to write that interface. :-) )

However, you're suggesting this for a minor version upgrade.  In a minor 
version upgrade, you're allowed to change configuration file formats.  In the 
interest of keeping Zope 3 simpler overall, I suggest that ZCML should just 
remove the former concepts of skins and layers.  Then the X3.0 -> X3.1 
upgrade guide should point to your proposal.

Shane