ObjectWidget caveat

ObjectWidget itself seems to be fine, but we discovered a fundamental problem in z3c.form.

The meat is that widget value * validation * extraction * applying values need to be separated and made recursive-aware.

Currently

• There is a loop that extracts and validates each widgets value. Then it moves on to the next widget in the same loop.
• The problem is that the ObjectWidget MUST keep it’s values in the object itself, not in any dict or helper structure. That means in case of a validation failure later in the loop the ObjectWidget’s values are already applied and cannot be reverted.
• Also on a single level of widgets this loop might be OK, because the loop is just flat.

We need

• To do a loop to validate ALL widget values.
• To do a loop to extract ALL values. (maybe apply too, let’s think about it...)
• Then in a different loop apply those extracted (and validated) values.
• Problem is that the current API does not support separate methods for that.
• One more point is to take into account that with the ObjectWidget forms and widgets can be _recursive_, that means there can be a form-widgets-subform-widgets-subform-widgets level of widgets.

An example:

> The situation is the following: > - schema is like this: > class IMySubObject(zope.interface.Interface): > foofield = zope.schema.Int( > title=u”My foo field”, > default=1111, > max=9999) > barfield = zope.schema.Int( > title=u”My dear bar”, > default=2222, > required=False) > class IMyObject(zope.interface.Interface): > subobject = zope.schema.Object(title=u’my object’, > schema=IMySubObject) > name = zope.schema.TextLine(title=u’name’) > > - on object editing > - we need to keep the (old) (IMySubObject) object in place > – do not create a new one > - value setting is done in the editform handleApply > - extractData, extract needs to extract recursively > - return assignable values > - it has no idea about subobjects > - let’s say the IMySubObject data is validated OK, but there’s an > error in IMyObject (with name) > - now the problem is: > - IMyObject.subobject extract gets called first > it sets the values on the existing object (and fires > ObjectModifiedEvent) > - IMyObject.name detects the error > it does not set the value > BUT IMyObject.subobject sticks to the extracted value that should be > discarded, because the whole form did not validate?!?!?!