Ruslan’s Blog

To use IPython shell from Grok based project is easy, just add ipython to eggs directive in your buildout.cfg

My part with ipython added looks like this:

[app]
recipe = zc.recipe.egg
eggs = grok-awesome
       ipython
       Paste
       PasteScript
       PasteDeploy
interpreter = python-console

But I wanted to be able to inspect Grok instance and use path TAB auto-completion to navigate ZODB hierarchy.

Inspired by existing IPython profile fo Zope2 I whipped out basic implementation for Grok.

It’s available under grok-ipython. Now all IPython power can be used when inspecting objects in Grok instance:

(mygrok)[alienoid@capricorn grok-awesome]$ bin/ipython -p grok
IPython shell for Grok.

Bound object names:
-------------------
  root
  ctx

Bound command names:
--------------------
  cdg / ;cdg
  lsg / ;lsg
  pwdg
  sync
  commit

Grok IPython 0.9.1   Py 2.5.2

In [1]: root
Out[1]: <zope.app.folder.folder.Folder object at 0x9003e6c>

In [2]: ctx
Out[2]: <zope.app.folder.folder.Folder object at 0x9003e6c>

In [3]: ;cdg blog
------> cdg("blog")
Out[3]: u'/blog'

In [4]: ctx
Out[4]: <grokawesome.blog.Blog object at 0x81d2d6c>

In [5]: ;cdg 
my-first-post  second-post    

In [5]: ;cdg my-first-post
------> cdg("my-first-post")
Out[5]: u'/blog/my-first-post'

In [6]: ctx
Out[6]: <grokawesome.entry.BlogEntry object at 0xb7d556ac>

In [7]: pwdg
Out[7]: u'/blog/my-first-post'

In [8]: ctx?
Type:           BlogEntry
Base Class:     <class 'grokawesome.entry.BlogEntry'>
String Form:    <grokawesome.entry.BlogEntry object at 0xb7d556ac>
Namespace:      Interactive
Length:         0
File:           /home/alienoid/mygrok/grok-awesome/src/grokawesome/entry.py
Docstring:
    <no docstring>


In [9]: ctx??
Type:             BlogEntry
Base Class:       <class 'grokawesome.entry.BlogEntry'>
String Form:   <grokawesome.entry.BlogEntry object at 0xb7d556ac>
Namespace:        Interactive
Length:           0
File:             /home/alienoid/mygrok/grok-awesome/src/grokawesome/entry.py
Source:
class BlogEntry(grok.Container):
    grok.implements(IBlogEntry)

    portal_type = 'blogentry'
    created = property.DCProperty('created')
    modified = property.DCProperty('modified')

    def __init__(self, title, content,
                 summary=u'',
                 categories=None,
                 allow_comments=False):
        super(BlogEntry, self).__init__()
        self.title = title
        self.content = content
        self.summary = '' if summary is None else summary
        self.categories = [] if categories is None else categories
        self.allow_comments = allow_comments

I have added TinyMCE widget to grok-awesome for editing html and it was easy as pie.

If you want TinyMCE in your Grok based project it can be achieved with following steps:

1. Add dependencies to setup.py into install_requires section:

                        'hurry.tinymce',
                        'hurry.zopetinymce',

hurry.tinymce allows you to include TinyMCE into your project without additional burden, you don’t need to do anything. Well, almost – just make sure to call:
from hurry.tinymce import tinymce
tinymce.need()
to trigger inclusion of TinyMCE in the web page.

2. Create custom widget which calls tinymce.need() as noted above and initializes TinyMCE

from zope.app.form.browser import TextAreaWidget
from hurry.tinymce import tinymce

template = """%(widget_html)s
<script type="text/javascript">
  tinyMCE.init({
    mode : "exact",
    elements: "%(elements)s",
    theme: "advanced"
  });
</script>"""

class TinyMCEWidget(TextAreaWidget):
    """Widget to edit html using TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor."""

    def __call__(self, *args, **kw):
        widget_html = super(TinyMCEWidget, self).__call__(*args, **kw)
        tinymce.need()
        return template % {'widget_html': widget_html,
                           'elements': self.name,
                           }

3. In your add/edit form use your custom widget for the field you want and off you go:

form_fields['content'].custom_widget = TinyMCEWidget

I’ve started developing blog software for “A Smashing Web Framework” Grok.

The reasons behind that:

• There is no full-featured blog software for Grok. There is a simple version Grokstar, but as for me it doesn’t fit the bill.
• I created simple blog for Zope3 several years ago and let it languish. Now it’s time to revive it taking into account how Grok simplifies development with Zope3 technologies.
• I’m not completely happy with WordPress. For one thing, I’d like to have easy-to-use REST API so I can use it in my Emacs to make posts.
• I simply love Grok. You should try it and you’ll love it too.

My fledgling project lives on GitHub and it’s called grok-awesome :)