[Erp5-dev] RFC: Planning to rename Image and File portal types in erp5_core / erp5_base

[Jean-Paul Smets]

Hi,

I am planning to rename 2 portal types: Image and File.

Since those two types are used in all ERP5 sites, I am requesting here
for comments. I will describe the reasons and the approach which I am
considering to prevent any incompatibilities or heavy migrations.

Reasons:
    - in erp5_core and erp5_base, Image and File in erp5_base are used
as a kind of property to certain objects (ex. Person, Organisation).
They acquire their local roles and do not really need a workflow.
    - with the introduction of erp5_dms, Image and File have become real
documents with their specific module, complex local roles and
publication workflow. A state called "embedded" was introduced to
provide compatibility of security settings for previous Image and File data
    - the property "acquire local role" is set to False in most
documents, except Image and File, which creates various troubles (ie.
the security of image_module in erp5_dms makes all images visible)
    - with the introdcution of erp5_dms, populateContent method now
creates embedded HTML inside OOoDocuments which are converted to HTML.
Their "acquire_local_role" property is set to True which also creates
various troubles whenever a Web Page is embedded inside an OOoDocument
as the result of a conversion
    - searches return many Image and Web Page documents which are
actually just converted items and which are not relevant
    - various obvious methods (ex. interaction workflows to copy local
roles, use translation tricks) are too much a hack

Solution 1:
    - rename Image to Embedded Image (acquire local roles = true)
    - rename File to Embedded File (acquire local roles = false)
    - include both Image, File, Embedded Image and Embedded File in
erp5_core
    - remove Image and File from allowed content types in erp5_core and
erp5_base and replace them with their embedded counterpart
    - add Embedded Image and Embedded File in all listbox definitions of
erp5_base which display images
    - add a transparent migration method to Image and File classes. For
example, the getPortalType method could be overloaded so that, in
combination with a version checking of the Image / File instance, a
script is invoked to provide the new value of the portal_type attribute
based on various conditions (is the state embedded). Reindexing the site
or doing edit on any Image / File would be sufficient to migrate all
existing Image / File and would not cost much later.
    - remove all transitions to the embedded state in publication
workflow (and remove the embedded state some day)

Solution 2:
    -  add __bobo_traverse__ to OOoDocument and store converted data
(HTML, images) in a separate location

Both solutions could be combined.

Comments are welcome. The idea to reduce the migration cost to zero
effort if possible. So, if the 2 solutions here can create extra work
for you, please let me know how and why.

Regards,

JPS.

-- 
Jean-Paul Smets-Solanes, Nexedi CEO - Tel. +33(0)6 62 05 76 14
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