TF & ZMI, was: RE: [Zope-dev] Zope 2.6 and OrderedFolders

Eric Roby vekn@msn.com
Thu, 7 Mar 2002 19:35:25 -0600


I think this is an excellent alternative to handle the UI aesthetics.  The
other part of this issue (for me) is the acquisition of these objects.  Even
if they are hanging out in the root, I would still like to be able to put
templates in a template folder, scripts in a scripts folder etc... and not
have to go through a great deal of fanfare to acquire them.  It would be
nice to be able to define mappings (or not) for the acquision process to
evaluate once the trail hits root and before it looks in REQUEST.  This
feature of TF is really nice (just dangerous).

Eric



> You know, the funny thing is that TF really accomplishes the goals of a
> ZMI/UI-improvement hack (unclutter a view of a folder to VISUALLY separate
> the software/content/presentation space) implemented, IMHO, in the wrong
> place.  I would think there is another way that a Folder UI could be
> uncluttered without the magic of TF, and that is add "translucency" (items
> are there, but obscured from view) to the UI layer - that is, the ability
to
> VISUALLY unclutter different users' views of objects in a folder via ZMI;
> views could be stored per user.
>
> For example, you could select ZSQL Methods and RDB connections in a folder
> to be hidden from everybody but the Database programmer; you could keep
> these and Python Scripts obscured from the view of a content person or
> presentation designer, etc.  Well, they wouldn't be hidden, but visually
> 'compacted' and relegated to a small drop-down box at the bottom of the
page
> to unclutter it... so the standard tabled object list wouldn't iterate
over
> objectIds() or objectValues(), but instead a higher-level filter function.
> A complimentary filter function would render the 'hidden' objects as a
> sequence as well.
>
>
> __ZMI manage_main Now:______________________
> ________________________
> ===\===\===\===\========    <--- ZMI tabs
> % :::::::::::::::::::===
>
> TP.NAME..... .SZ. ..LM..
> []---------- ---- ------
> []---------- ---- ------
> []---------- ---- ------
> []---------- ---- ------
> []---------- ---- ------
>
> [RN][CT][CP][DL][I/E][SA]  <--- Buttons
>                                 for checked
>
>
> __ZMI With Translucency:___________________
> ________________________
> ===\===\===\===\========    <--- ZMI tabs
> % :::::::::::::::::::===
>
> TP.NAME..... .SZ. ..LM..
> []---------- ---- ------
> []---------- ---- ------
> []---------- ---- ------
> []---------- ---- ------
> []---------- ---- ------
>
> [RN][CT][][][][][Hide]     <--- New HideBtn
> ________________________
> Hidden Items:
> [Select Item... [v]
> [Open][Unhide][ViewAll]    <--- Buttons for
>                                 doing things
>                   ^             with hidden
>                   |             items
>                   |
>                   +-----------> ViewAll =>
>                                 pop-up new
>                                 window
> ____________________________________________
>
> This would be more visually convenient.  I'm thinking of trying to
> monkey-patch OFS.Folder to just do this.
>
> Of course, with these kind of modifications, for any given folder, there's
> no mandatate that anything need to be hidden at all.  Thoughts?
>
> Sean