dm.zopepatches.zclasses 0.1.1
Through the Web application development without deep programming skills (former ZClasses functionality in the Zope core).
License: BSD
Keywords: application development menu web

This functionality used to be in the Zope core as ``ZClasses``.
It allows the menu driven construction of Web applications.
Due to the menu support, only limited programming skills are necessary.

More precisely: the ``ZClasses`` functionality allowed to define classes
(in the object oriented sense of the word)
via the Zope Management Interface (``ZMI``), so called ``ZClasses``.
A ``ZClass`` could inherit from base classes and other ``ZClasses`` (multiple
inheritance), manage data in a set of associated property sheets, define
methods to operate on its instances (present, modify) via arbitrary
other Zope objects
(e.g. templates, scripts), define permissions appropriate for the class
and map class relevant permissions to the standard permissions used by
the objects implementing the class methods.
Classes could then be instantiated and the instances used in the
Web application, to hold data, to provide fundamental services, to glue
things together.
Quite impressive....

It has been a valuable selling point in the past. In fact, back
in 2000, I used ``ZClasses`` to build a large multilingual Web
application comprising about half a dozen ``ZClasses`` and allowing
to perform queries against a European tender database and subscribe
to email notifications for changed query results.

Unfortunately, some influential Zope developers (especially
the Zope 2 release manager) did not like ``ZClasses``
and started to fight them. Finally (with Zope 2.12), they removed
the functionality from the Zope core -- originally claiming the
high maintenance burden (although since 2.8 nothing was done with
``ZClasses``) but finally conceeding that the removal happened
because they did not want ``ZClasses``.

True, ``ZClasses`` had some problems:

 * ``ZClasses`` are Zope objects, stored and maintained in the ZODB
   (the Zope Object Database). There is no version control system
   documenting who changed what for what reason. Such documentation
   can be vital for large projects with a long lifetime.

 * ``ZClasses`` provided a vast functionality but there have been
   no tests to verify all this functionality. As a consequence,
   ``ZClassess`` broke once partially and this was only detected
   by Zope users and not during the development by the tests.

 * For Zope 2.8, ``ZClasses`` needed an overhaul and only Jim Fulton
   (the initial author of Zope and ``ZClasses``) was able to do this
   work. The developers feared that a future Zope version might need
   a similar effort with the resources missing.

 * ``ZClasses`` do not play well with storage mounting.


It is right to caution users against such deficiencies but in my view
it was wrong to break backward compatibility by removing the
functionality. Fortunately, Zope is open source which somewhat limits
the power of developers and release managers.
This package uses so called monkey patching (runtime code modifications)
to reinsert into Zope again the ``ZClasses`` functionality
the Zope developers had ripped off.

Some **warning notes**: monkey patching is potentially
dangerous. Partially, it replaces core functionality by a slightly
modified one. I have tried hard that these replacements should
be okay for Zope 2.12 but future Zope versions might need other
replacements. The breakage might occur not in ``ZClasses`` itself
but in the core functionality. Moreover, the Zope developers hostility
towards ``ZClasses`` may be large enough that they remove further parts
required by ``ZClasses``. While in principle, these parts can also
be put back, the costs increase and may finally get too large (such
that I abandon the project). Therefore, it is probably wise not
to rely on this package for long living new projects but restrict
its use to get some additional time to reimplement ``ZClasses`` based
projects or for short living prototypes.

``ZClasses`` used to be documented at
"http://www.plope.com/Books/2_7Edition/CustomZopeObjects.stx".
The Zope developers did not forget to rip this documentation off as well.
But, I have anticipated the step and have saved a copy. You find
it in the package's ``doc`` subdirectory. It still presents the "plope"
look&feel and links will not to work. Screenshots are lost but you
can use your Zope to get them.

Activation
==========

This package does nothing until it is imported. On import,
it performs its monkey patching.

``ZClasses`` require a special class factory for
the root ZODB. To this end, the root ZODB configuration
must use the configuration option (in the Zope configuration file)::

  class-factory dm.zopepatches.zclasses.ClassFactory

Usually, the import (mentioned in the first paragraph)
is performed when this option is processed.

Limitations
===========

 * This version does not yet reinstate the ``ZClasses`` help pages.

 * This version does not yet reinstate the distibution tab of products.
   Likewise, distribution import is likely not to work.