[Zope-dev] ZPatterns framework improvements

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 05:28 PM 5/19/00 +0000, Jason Spisak wrote:
>Phillip J. Eby:
>
>> I'm not actually real fond of the DDO term, because "Dynamic Data Object"
>> doesn't quite do justice to what these things actually are.  I am
>> definitely open to suggestions for a better name.  (Facade?  PlaceHolder?
>> InsideOutObject?  ExternalDataObject?  BrainInjectedObject?)
>
>ZopeTupperware, AloofAttributeObjects, DataSkins :)  
>

I think I'm going to go with DataSkins.  Thanks for the suggestion.  :)

Now I need a name for another interesting ZPatterns 0.4.0 object...

I was working on "indexing" plugins for DataManagers (Racks, Specialists,
and DataInjectors) and at one point I realized that you could use them for
things besides indexing.

The basic idea is that an "indexing" plugin receives objectAdded(),
objectChanging(), objectChanged(), and objectDeleted() messages from its
DataManager.  The idea was that it would then be able to update an index
(such as a ZCatalog) accordingly.  But during one of the PTK discussions
about member registration, it occurred to me that a "registration index"
could note the addition of a user, and then e-mail them or do other
operations specific to that portal's business rules.  That seemed like an
interesting hack of indexes, but then after a while I realized that these
plugins could enforce any other business rules related to changes of
objects or their addition/deletion.  They could, for example, be reverse
indexes that, whenever a new information item was added, they looked up
saved search preferences to find who was looking for the new item.  They
could notify a manager about an expenditure greater than a certain amount.
They could roll back transactions if certain conditions weren't met.  And
it all could be done outside the object itself, in the sense that these
things would be extensions to the object's class, based on its location in
the Zope filesystem.

So anyway, "index" now seems rather inadequate to describe these indexing,
search-agenting, business-ruling objects.  (Change Monitors?  Knowbots?
Indexing Agents?  Index Rules?  Object Matchers?)  If you have any name
suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em.  :)  I think it would be good if the
name implied both major capabilities, although I think I might just end up
having two seperate tabs ("Indexes" and "Rules") just to make the
capabilities clearer.  It's just that DataManager derivatives already have
so darn many tabs (Methods, Attribute Providers, Sheet Providers, etc.).