[Zope3-dev] Re: issue 216

[Derrick Hudson]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2005 at 06:51:23PM +0100, Roman Roelofsen wrote:
| 
| Hi Roger,
| 
| thanks for your reply.
| 
| > > ~ So, what do you think about my approach?
| > > ~ Is there a better, more "zopeish" way?
| >
| > Yes, add a own skin, there you can provide whatever you like.
| > Hm, that's not right. If you inherit your skin from the rotterdam layer
| > you will inherit all views and pages.
| 
| But if I define my user_views, etc. in my custom skin, my view compontents 
| wouldn´t be useable in other zope instances which are using a different skin.
[snip example]

The way I understand it, you should put your views in a layer.  Then
you include that layer in the skin(s) that you want the view to exist
in.

I suppose you could also register your views in more than one
layer/skin so that you have both a complete custom skin and also a
piece that fits in the Rotterdam (or whatever) skin.

(however, I haven't tried any of this yet :-), I may be mistaken)

[...]
| Different users should use different skins?

It makes sense to me, since different categories of users should see
the system differently.  Eg Zope2 has the ZMI for site developers and
admins, and then an app (a custom app, or CMF/Plone/etc.) provides its
own views that the end-user will see.

| Is "skin" then still the correct word? I always understood a Zope3
| skin as the 
| last polish step for my whole site.

Sort-of.  I guess it depends on how you do your development.
 
One model is to knock together cheesy views and put them in the ZMI
(currently Rotterdam skin) just to exercise and test your code.  Once
the data and logic work, you could then focus on the presentation to
the users.  Another model is to do the presentation first as a set of
mock-ups, and then fill in the implementation to support the views.  A
third model is to do both more-or-less in parallel.

At any rate, my understanding is as follows:
    + a skin is the unit of choice a user/admin has for choosing the
        appearance of the UI
    + a skin is merely an ordered set of layers
    + layers contain the various views, menus, and what-not that
        comprise the UI of the system

If I am correct, then this means that by putting all of your stuff
into cohesive layers, you then have the flexibility to include the views
in whatever skins you so desire.  Furthermore, I believe you can
create a skin using inheritance, so hypothetically you could create a
MyContactRotterdam skin that inherits from Rotterdam and adds your
MyContactLayer layer to it, so you get both the existing Rotterdam
stuff and your custom contact views.

HTH,
-D

-- 
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his
soul?  Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
        Mark 8:36-37
 
www: http://dman13.dyndns.org/~dman/            jabber: dman at dman13.dyndns.org
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