Thanks for all the advice! I'll let you know how it turns out. Randolph
On May 10, 2012, at 3:57 PM, Cris Ewing wrote: > > On May 10, 2012, at 3:37 PM, Randolph M. Fritz wrote: > >>> The easiest way to get what you want would be to use the script to write >>> the output to a file on the filesystem somewhere, then open and read that >>> file using plone. >> >> That sounds good. Perhaps we could run the script every hour or so. >> >> Where would you suggest that "somewhere" be? > > It doesn't really matter, so long as you know where it is, the location > doesn't change, and the system user account under which Zope/Plone is running > has read access to the file > >> >>> Depending on how pretty you want the output (and on how 'right' you want to >>> be about your approach), the two possible ways to go here are a >>> 'BrowserView', and an 'External Method'. >> >> I think I understand what an external method is; so far I cannot decipher >> the explanation of views in the Plone site. Can you point me to some >> examples? Or at least a concise glossary? > > An external method will require the least initial work, but is the least > flexible and does not really allow easy access to the full site template and > theme. If you are comfortable setting one up, you can certainly start there. > It is also easy enough to create a basic template in your custom folder > which calls the external method and presents the results, but this is not > particularly repeatable, and leaves you with all your code in the ZODB, which > means you can't easily move it to a different site if you need to. > > A browser view is a bit more complex because it requires a bit of installable > machinery to set up. Basically, you need to write a python package with some > boilerplate code in it in order to make your browser view available. After > you get past that hump, though, browser views are very powerful and allow you > to do many things. They also simplify the act of integrating the output of > your script with the Plone template and theme, so you can get output that > looks like its a 'page' in the site, and not just some random text. > > I would suggest if you are interested in a browser view based solution that > you read these sources: > > 1. http://blog.aclark.net/2011/08/20/hello-plone/ > 2. http://collective-docs.readthedocs.org/en/latest/views/browserviews.html > > In both cases there are some caveats. In the first document, since you > already have a Plone instance, you do not need to do the first few steps. > You can begin at the part where you install zopeskel to generate the > boilerplate package. Alex's suggestion regarding using the plone_basic > template from zopeskel is exactly right. That will give you an installable > python package into which you can put your view. > > In the second case, the community developer's manual is a great resource for > finding out everything, but it isn't particularly well organized. I would > not follow any instructions from that page, but use it as a resource to start > to understand how things work. > >> >>> You cannot use a Python Script created through the web, because >>> Plone/Zope's underlying security will not allow TTW creation of a script >>> that directly accesses the server filesystem (this is a good thing). >> >> That makes all kinds of sense. >> >>> What version of Plone are you using, and how pretty do you want it to be? >> >> No idea how pretty, yet, or even what that would work out to in practice. >> >> Version Overview >> • Plone 4.1.2 (4111) >> • CMF 2.2.4 >> • Zope 2.13.10 >> • Python 2.6.7 (r267:88850, Dec 6 2011, 10:20:02) [GCC 4.2.1 20070719 >> [FreeBSD]] >> • PIL 1.1.7 >> >> Randolph > > Great to see that you're using a nice, recent version of Plone. > > I will be happy to answer any questions you have as you move forward. You > can also get a ton of help in the #plone channel on IRC on freenode.net if > you are comfortable going to IRC for help. > > One last suggestion, before doing any of this, I would highly recommend > developing your solution on a local machine before you try to deploy it to > your server. It's pretty easy with the Plone unified installer to get a > nice, usable buildout of plone on your desktop, and the whole installation of > zopeskel in order to get package skeletons quickly can easily be taken care > of with that setup. If you do that, then you do not need to install zopeskel > on your server, which is a good thing. > > Let me know how else I can help, > > Cris Ewing > > -------------------------------------------------- > Principal, Cris Ewing, Developer LLC > http://www.crisewing.com > [email protected] > 1.206.724.2112 >
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