[Zope] TinyTable plus (reprise)

[Philip Kilner]

Hi List,

Asked this last night, but none to coherently.

I'm working on a set-up which essentially makes a variety of multi-page 
data-entry processes generic.

I've got a /completely/ generic page template which nicely renders any 
formulator form we chuck at it, and handles errors etc., and the 
sequence of formulator forms is defined in a script, which fires each 
form in turn, accumulating the data in the session object until the a 
script performs the database write(s).

So far, so good.

The last step (until we have another bright idea! <g>) is to make the 
/controlling/ script generic (the final database handling stuff being 
inherently /not/ generic). The idea is to get to a point where 
non-technical business-level folk can prototype a non-trivial, linear 
data-capture process by creating formulator objects and defining the 
sequence in which they run, and the only "techie" bit is writing the 
script to handle the data. We have the forms nicely managed, so we just 
need a "manageable" data structure to define the sequence, and carry any 
additional attributes which we might use in the generic process. After a 
bit of casting about, I think TinyTablePlus should be just the job.

I have two questions: -

- Given the outline of what we are doing, is there a better way of doing it?

- Is there a syntax we can use in the Python script to directly access a 
column by it's index. e.g. if our table reads: -

"1", "TestCase"
"2", "NutCase"
"3", "HeadCase"

...I'd like to be able to say something like: -

container.REQUEST.SESSION.set
('formulator_object', getattr(container.process_spec('1'), form_name))

...where '1' is the index of the current step and 'form_name' is the 
column name where the name of our formulator form lives.

I've searched high and low for an example of this, but have found 
nothing helpful. I'd be really grateful if someone could help me out 
here, because my notes of how I've got this far should be a big help to 
the next poor sap with my skill set who thinks that all this stuff 
should be easier to puzzle out, documented, or just plain easier...

-- 

Regards,

PhilK

Email: phil at xfr.co.uk / Voicemail & Facsimile: 07092 070518

"The lyf so short, the craft so long to learne" - Chaucer