Re: [Zope-dev] Re: [Zope-PTK] PROPOSAL: Splitting ZPatterns into two products
Steve Alexander wrote: "Phillip J. Eby" wrote: So, I am thinking perhaps I should split ZPatterns into two products: PlugIns and DataSkins. If 'PlugIns' includes plugins, plugin groups and plugin containers, then that's a pretty good name :-) (If I've missed bits out and the like, please let me know, I'm trying to keep up to date ;-) 'DataSkins' doesn't mean a lot to me as a name :S What components would go into this product? I'm all for this proposal. Yup, sounds like a great idea. Hopefulyl Pluggins could get into the Zope core ASAP. I reckon they might be quite useful to ZMI mark II :-) The only problem I see is that the work of updating the developer documentation on the Wikis, and putting "historical documents", like the IRC chat transcript, in a context where they make sense. I'm willing to spend some time on the documentation work. Has anyone done anything with the 'glossary wiki' idea I punted out a while back? I would have liked to have done it but have been a little busy :( anyway, sounds cool :-) Chris ___ Zope-Dev maillist - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** (Related lists - http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope )
Re: [Zope-dev] Re: [Zope-PTK] PROPOSAL: Splitting ZPatterns into two products
Chris Withers wrote: 'DataSkins' doesn't mean a lot to me as a name :S What components would go into this product? An object that has DataSkin as a base class allows a DataManager to look after its data storage requirements. The DataManager stores all the propertysheets and attributes, and works out what to do and who to notify when things change. There are various types of DataManager in ZPatterns, and the important ones take plug-ins so that you can greatly modify their behaviour. Specialists and Customizers (aka Folders w/ customizer support) are the main DataManagers you build an application out of. Specialists may have Racks inside them to actually do the work of storing the data, so you can think about your application's architecture at many different levels of abstraction. You can say "The AddressBook specialist manages Address DataSkins" but you can also say "The Addresses rack in the AddessBook specialist stores the Address DataSkins". When Objects get created or deleted or changed, a DataManager will tell any Agents it knows about that this has happened, in case they are interested. An Agent is anything that monitors the events produced when things happen to DataSkins. A Trigger is a kind of Agent that does something concrete, like calling a method, in response to a change in a DataSkin. You can use a Trigger to update a ZCatalog when a DataSkin gets added or deleted or changes. This is good because catalog-awareness gets to move out of the domain objects (business objects, or whatever) and into the parts of your system that are concerned with the management of those objects. You can even use two Triggers to update two different Catalogs when a DataSkin changes -- for example, the AddressBook catalog, and also a SiteIndex catalog for searching all the data in your system. Perhaps the SiteIndex holds just minimal indexes and meta-data, whereas the AddressBook catalog holds meta-data and indexes more specialised to an address book. Two other important aspects of the DataSkins part of ZPatterns are SheetProviders and AttributeProviders. These plug into Racks (and anything else that takes "Data Plugins") and do the work of getting propertysheets and calculating or importing attributes. These attributes and propertysheets generally end up as the data belonging to the DataSkins. Yup, sounds like a great idea. Hopefulyl Pluggins could get into the Zope core ASAP. I reckon they might be quite useful to ZMI mark II :-) What is ZMI? -- Steve Alexander Software Engineer Cat-Box limited http://www.cat-box.net ___ Zope-Dev maillist - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** (Related lists - http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope )
Re: [Zope-dev] Re: [Zope-PTK] PROPOSAL: Splitting ZPatterns into two products
At 09:51 AM 7/28/00 +0100, Chris Withers wrote: Steve Alexander wrote: "Phillip J. Eby" wrote: So, I am thinking perhaps I should split ZPatterns into two products: PlugIns and DataSkins. If 'PlugIns' includes plugins, plugin groups and plugin containers, then that's a pretty good name :-) Yes. 'DataSkins' doesn't mean a lot to me as a name :S What components would go into this product? DataSkins themselves, and all the things that support them. Data Managers (Racks and Customizers), Data Manager containers (Specialists and Folders w/Customization Support), and Data Plug-Ins (Attribute Providers, Sheet Providers, Triggers, etc.) Yup, sounds like a great idea. Hopefulyl Pluggins could get into the Zope core ASAP. I reckon they might be quite useful to ZMI mark II :-) That might be, but the PlugIns part isn't really where it should be before it could even be proposed to go into the Zope core. The biggest hurdle remaining is full ZClass support. I would like to have it so that if you base a ZClass on PlugInContainer, you get a tab in the ZClass management screen where you can add and configure plug-in groups... and the groups themselves would be plug-ins, so that you could have specialized forms of plug-in groups. Has anyone done anything with the 'glossary wiki' idea I punted out a while back? I don't believe so. But I think that splitting the package will make documentation easier. Partly because it will allow starting from a fresh viewpoint that is DataSkins-centric and more use-oriented. I figure on leaving the ZPatterns Wiki alone for the most part until the DataSkins docs start to mature, and then yanking out documentation-type stuff from the ZPatterns Wiki and re-purposing it to focus on application design, object modelling, and the like, in the context of the DataSkins and PlugIns packages. ___ Zope-Dev maillist - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** (Related lists - http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope )
Re: [Zope-dev] Re: [Zope-PTK] PROPOSAL: Splitting ZPatterns into two products
Steve Alexander wrote: An object that has DataSkin as a base class allows a DataManager to look after its data storage requirements. The DataManager stores all the propertysheets and attributes, and works out what to do and who to notify when things change. Okay, makes sense... There are various types of DataManager in ZPatterns, and the important ones take plug-ins so that you can greatly modify their behaviour. I thought there were only two right now? Specialists may have Racks inside them to actually do the work of storing the data, Now what's a rack in Plugin terminology? so you can think about your application's architecture at many different levels of abstraction. You can say "The AddressBook specialist manages Address DataSkins" but you can also say "The Addresses rack in the AddessBook specialist stores the Address DataSkins". By DataSkins here, particularly in the secodn phrasing, wouldn't it be better to say the AddressBook specialist stores the flesh and bones of the Address DataSkins? When Objects get created or deleted or changed, a DataManager will tell any Agents it knows about that this has happened, in case they are interested. Are 'Objects' here DataSkins, non-DataSkins or either? An Agent is anything that monitors the events produced when things happen to DataSkins. But they're actually called by the Data Managers? A Trigger is a kind of Agent that does something concrete, like calling a method, in response to a change in a DataSkin. You can use a Trigger to update a ZCatalog when a DataSkin gets added or deleted or changes. Sounds cool, where does SkinScript fit in here? This is good because catalog-awareness gets to move out of the domain objects (business objects, or whatever) and into the parts of your system that are concerned with the management of those objects. I think I like this... You can even use two Triggers to update two different Catalogs when a DataSkin changes -- for example, the AddressBook catalog, and also a SiteIndex catalog for searching all the data in your system. Now how would these triggers actually get added to the datamanager in the above example? I like this very much as it's something I've often wondered about but which CatalogAware never seemed to address... Two other important aspects of the DataSkins part of ZPatterns are SheetProviders and AttributeProviders. These plug into Racks (and anything else that takes "Data Plugins") and do the work of getting propertysheets and calculating or importing attributes. These attributes and propertysheets generally end up as the data belonging to the DataSkins. Ah, okay, I see now. So, for example, a SheetProvider would prove a property sheet for each DataSkin served by the DataManager in which it was located? What is ZMI? Zope Management Interface (specifically Mark II ;-) It's a proposal on dev.zope.org... cheers, Chris ___ Zope-Dev maillist - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-dev ** No cross posts or HTML encoding! ** (Related lists - http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-announce http://lists.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope )
