Populator Tool

Step 1

Create a configuration script for the content type.

It must return a simple data structure.:

[
    {
        'id':some_id,                   # id of the content
        'portal_type':some_portaltype,  # what portal type must the content be.
        'fixed_attrs':[],               # Attrs where the value must no be changed
        'attrs':{},                     # attributes values for the content
        'subitems':[],                  # subcontent. Nested data structure
        'config_script':'scriptname',   # Configuration script for the content
    },
]

The users can actually change the values of 'fixed_attrs', but next time the populate method is called, it will be changed back to the default.

Once the content has been created, the ids are 'locked' so that the populated content cannot be deleted by the user.

It currently only work on archetype based content types.

Here is an example 'PopulatorTool_NewsFolder.py' with nested content:

return [
    {
        'id':'files',
        'portal_type':'Folder',
        'fixed_attrs':['title'],
        'attrs':{'title':'Files'},
        'subitems':[
            {
                'id':'these-are-files',
                'portal_type':'Document',
                'fixed_attrs':['title'],
                'attrs':{'title':'These Are Files'}
            },
        ]
    },
    {
        'id':'images',
        'portal_type':'Folder',
        'fixed_attrs':['title'],
        'attrs':{'title':'Images'},
        'config_script':'PopulatorTool_ImageFolderScript',
    },
    {
        'id':'pdf-files',
        'portal_type':'Folder',
        'fixed_attrs':['title'],
        'attrs':{'title':'PDF files'}
    },
]

A script called 'PopulatorTool_ImageFolderScript.py' is used to further configure the 'images' folder. The config script is called like 'obj.PopulatorTool_ImageFolderScript()'. It could look like this:

desc = 'This folder contains images.'
if context.Description() != desc:
    context.setDescription(desc)
default_view = 'atct_album_view'
if context.defaultView() != default_view:
    context.setLayout(default_view)

Step 2

Call the tool from a page template. Then the content will be populated when the view is called:

<tal:block tal:define="dummy python: here.populator_tool.populate(here, 'PopulatorTool_NewsFolder');" />

To avoid calling the method for every page view you can check the member roles:

<tal:block tal:condition="python:member.has_role(['Owner', 'Manager'], here)"
           tal:define="dummy python: here.populator_tool.populate(here, 'PopulatorTool_NewsFolder');" />

It is also possible to put the code into a portlet.

Theres is another trick that can be used here. You can add the populate call under an "action" as a python "condition" on the content type.

Then it will be called everytime the content type us viewed. The trick is to use the fact that the "populate" method returns None, so the action will never be visible. Here is an example of a "dummy" action that calls the populator.:

Title: "Populate"
Id: "populate"
URL (Expression): "string:${object_url}"
Condition (Expression): "python: here.populator_tool.populate(here, 'PopulatorTool_NewsFolder')"
Permission: "Modify portal content"
Category: "object"
Visible?: "checked"

This is a dirty trick and a hack. So please feel bad if you use it. I do.