Setting field defaults on programmatically created Dexterity items - plone

I have a Dexterity content type based on plone.directives.form.Schema which has a number of form hints for assigning defaults:
#form.default_value(field=ITrial['start_on'])
def default_start_on(data):
return datetime.now()
Some of the defaults are more complex, passing back objects that are themselves instances of Dexterity types. These objects are essential for the main type's setup, which is triggered by various events.
I'm now in the process of testing. Ideally, I'd like to be able to use something like:
item = createContentInContainer(folder, 'ctcc.model.trial', 'item')
That is, I'd like the defaults to be picked up by the item without having to be manually passed into the constructor.
If I was using zope.schema I could use FieldProperty to set up proxies to the schema fields. Is there something equivalent for Dexterity, or perhaps a function for pushing an object through form creation?
Solution: I ended up going with David's option #1, intercepting ObjectCreatedEvent.
#grok.subscribe(ITrial, IObjectCreatedEvent)
def create_trial(trial, event):
if getattr(trial, 'start_on', None) is None:
trial.start_on = default_start_on(None)
It stills feels like I'm replicating part of form behaviour, but at least it's using the same functions that are providing the form defaults.

As you've discovered, the #form.default_value decorator is respected by z3c.form forms, but not when items are created in other ways. You have several options:
Write a handler for the ObjectCreatedEvent for your content type which sets up the necessary default values. This is the simplest approach to implement, but may not work if there are other handlers of this event that need the values in place.
Create your own subclass of Dexterity's generic Item class, and use it instead of Item as the basis for your content type. Then you can customize the __init__ method to set whatever you want. This would require migration of existing content items though, if you already have some.
This is a more complicated option. Replace the factory utility used to construct the content type. createContentInContainer ends up looking for an IFactory utility with a name equal to the factory attribute of the content type's FTI. The default implementation is in plone.dexterity.factory but you could replace it with a different one that does more.

Related

Get the item set as display

I have a container x, with a Link item y set as display.
How can I access programmatically y if I know x?
I tried: getattr(x, 'default_page', None), but it returns None all the time.
By using getattr you may override plone default behavior regarding how to determinate the default page of an object (item or container).
Content objects in Plone inherit BrowserDefaultMixin, which provides the functionality of getting the default page of a object
The mixin, respectively a utility used by the mixin provides the desired method called getDefaultPage
>>> x = b.getObject()
>>> x.getDefaultPage()
...
This will return the right content object or view depending on the configuration on the object, on the FTI and on the View itself and more.
Have a look at get_default_page for more details.
And even better...
This canonical way of getting the default page, would also have helped finding the issue in your case pretty fast, since the method does certain checks to make sure the passed object provides the right "features". A string would not pass those checks.
default_page = getattr(x, 'default_page', None) is the answer. But make sure you have an object for x.
My mistake was I tried b.getObject().absolute_url() in my query instead of b.getObject().

Adding a callback when reading from an object in Twig

Let's say I have a basic entity called Entity which is mapped to a database table. This entity has got two properties: propertyA and propertyB.
One particularity of this entity is, although we may store whatever we want in these properties, when using the value of propertyB on a Twig template with entity.propertyB we want to systematically truncate the value to 100 characters.
Now, this is perfectly doable in several ways:
Truncate the value directly in the getPropertyB() method;
Register a Twig extension and create a dedicated filter;
Add a lifecycle callback on the entity to truncate the value before the object is actually created.
As this is strictly a display rule, and not a business rule on our entity, the second solution seems to be the best IMHO. However, it demands we apply the filter every time we need to use the value of propertyB in a template. Should an unaware developer come by, the value may not be truncated.
So my question is: is there a way to register some kind of callback, strictly restricted to the view model wrapping our entity, which would allow us to apply some filters on the fly on some of its properties ?
Since you never need to access anything beyond 100 characters, you can truncate the property in its setter. This doesn't really pollute Entity code, because this is some logic inherent to it.

Formatted text in QTreeWidgetItem

I need to create QTreeWidgetItems which have support for formatted texts, such as:
MyCreatedType - INTEGER(1)
(ie: the line above should have a "normal" part : MyCreatedType and a "formatted" part (INTEGER(1) in our case).
Any idea how to accomplish this?
Thanks.
What you need is a delegate. Delegates are explained here:
Star Delegate Example http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/itemviews-stardelegate.html
QItemDelegate Reference http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/qitemdelegate.html
The general procedure I follow when creating and using custom delegates:
Create a custom type with the information you want to encapsulate.
For your case, perhaps fields for the variable type name and type value.
Store these custom types in your model, wrapping them in QVariants to satisfy the return types required by QAbstractItemModel
Create a control that matches the UI you want.
In this case it might mean a QText label for "MyCreatedType" followed by a second label in bold for "Integer(1)".
Perhaps the control has methods like "setTypeName" and "setTypeValue"
Create a delegate that paints your specific control when your custom type is found.
You will have to map fields in the custom type to fields in the custom UI control as needed.
Associate your model and delegate with the Tree View you are using.
I hope this general procedure makes sense. I would recommend completing the Star Delegate Example and then reading my procedure, as it will make more sense with some background.

How to set values of a Plone autoform in update methode with ignoreContext = True

I'm trying to make a form where I'm storing values outside of the context. Storing is done and working well but now I would like the update method to fill the form on rendering process. So I'm overriding update method of the Form class that way:
def update(self):
super(ConfigurationForm,self).update()
form = self.request.form
if not form:
#We are on a rendering process
provider = self.getProvider()
settings = provider.get()
#TODO: update widget values !?
settings is a dict where keys are equals to Interface fields's names.
So I have tried many ways to update widgets values:
Using dataconverter (too much complex and don't know if this is the only way
Updating the self.request.form dict and call again the update method
playing with field objects
What is the good way to achieve this ? (supporting all kind of field ?)
Don't do ignoreContext. Override getContent() to return a dict instead. The dict will be used as a pseudo context.

React to change on a static property

I'm re-writing an MXML item renderer in pure AS. A problem I can't seem to get past is how to have each item renderer react to a change on a static property on the item renderer class. In the MXML version, I have the following binding set up on the item renderer:
instanceProperty={callInstanceFunction(ItemRenderer.staticProperty)}
What would be the equivalent way of setting this up in AS (using BindingUtils, I assume)?
UPDATE:
So I thought the following wasn't working, but it appears as if Flex is suppressing errors thrown in the instanceFunction, making it appear as if the binding itself is bad.
BindingUtils.bindSetter(instanceFunction, ItemRenderer, "staticProperty");
However, when instanceFunction is called, already initialized variables on the given instance are all null, which was the cause of the errors referenced above. Any ideas why this is?
You have 2 options that I am aware of:
Option 1
You can dig into the code that the flex compiler builds based on your MXML to see how it handles binding to static properties. There is a compiler directive called -keep-generated-actionscript that will cause generated files to stick around. Sleuthing through these can give you an idea what happens. This option will involve instantiating Binding objects and StaticPropertyWatcher objects.
Option 2
There is staticEventDispatcher object that gets added at build time to classes containing static variables see this post http://thecomcor.blogspot.com/2008/07/adobe-flex-undocumented-buildin.html. According to the post, this object only gets added based on the presence of static variables and not getter functions.
Example of Option 2
Say we have a class named MyClassContainingStaticVariable with a static variable named MyStaticVariable and another variable someobject.somearrayproperty that we want to get updated whenever MyStaticVariable changes.
Class(MyClassContainingStaticVariable).staticEventDispatcher.addEventListener(
PropertyChangeEvent.PROPERTY_CHANGE,
function(event:PropertyChangeEvent):void
{
if(event.property == "MyStaticVariable")
{
someobject.somearrayproperty = event.newValue as Array;
}
});
I think you need to respond to the "PropertyChanged" event.
If you're going to do that, use a singleton instead of static. I don't think it will work on a static. (If you have to do it that way at all, there are probably a couple ways you could reapproach this that would be better).
var instance:ItemRenderer = ItemRenderer.getInstance();
BindingUtils.bindProperty(this, "myProperty", instance, "theirProperty");
After fiddling with this for a while, I have concluded that this currently isn't possible in ActionScript, not even with bindSetter. It seems there are some MXML-only features of data bindings judging by the following excerpt from the Adobe docs (though isn't it all compiled to AS code anyways)?
You cannot include functions or array
elements in property chains in a data
binding expression defined by the
bindProperty() or bindSetter() method.
For more information on property
chains, see Working with bindable
property chains.
Source: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=databinding_7.html
You can create a HostProxy class to stand in for the funciton call. Sort of like a HostFunctionProxy class which extends from proxy, and has a getProperty("functionInvokeStringWithParameters") which will invoke the function remotely from the host, and dispatch a "change" event to trigger the binding in typical [Bindable("change")] Proxy class.
You than let the HostProxy class act as the host, and use the property to remotely trigger the function call. Of course, it'd be cooler to have some TypeHelperUtil to allow converting raw string values to serialized type values at runtime for method parameters (splitted by commas usually).
Example:
eg.
var standInHost:Object = new HostFunctionProxy(someModelClassWithMethod, "theMethodToCall(20,11)");
// With BindingUtils.....
// bind host: standInHost
// bind property: "theMethodToCall(20,11)"
Of course, you nee to create such a utlity to help support such functionality beyond the basic Flex prescription. It seems many of such (more advanced) Flex bindings are usually done at compile time, but now you have to create code to do this at runtime in a completely cross-platform Actionscript manner without relying on the Flex framework.

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