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GenericMethodInterface Proposal

Note - this document is still a work in progress. Please do not make inline comments in the proposal - use the GenericMethodInterfaceDiscussion^x to make comments.

Another Note - I haven't thought this one through at all, I'm just rambling while I think about it so I don't feel I've forgotten something that might be useful ;-)

More note - This appears to have strong links with this bit of the PythonMethods^x project. Should the two be combined?

Last Updated: 1/8

Contact

ChrisW (if anyone wants to take this over, I'd be more than happy :-)

Problem

In there beginning, there was just DTML, then there were Python Methods. Soon, there will be Perl Methods, XSLT methods and maybe even ZTL methods. These are all basically text that is parsed and then executed to return a result. This may be HTML/WML/etc to be displayed or an object/result to be returned. Even though they all do the same interface tasks, AFAIK, you currently have to implement the interface each time.

Proposed Solution

Have a GenericMethod^x base class and/or Python Interface (the scarecrow variety) to provide the stuff that is common to all method.

This includes:

• management interface

• how they fit into the Zope framework

• a python interface for what the actual parsed method must handle.

This should also draw on other relevent proposals:

• DevWiki:MethodGeddon

• NamespacePassingRevisited

Risks

Can't think of any but haven't thought about it ;-)

Scope

Dunno, I guess to provide a standard API and interface for all methods, no matter what language they are written in.

Deliverables

• The base class.

• The python interface.

• API documentation and examples of use.

• Actual implementations for DTML methods (and documents?)

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