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217

answers:

1

ZCML can include conditional directives of the form

<configure zcml:condition="installed some.python.package">
    (conditional configuration directives)
</configure>

What is the expression syntax for condition? Is 'or' allowed?

+1  A: 

I always have to look this up too. The syntax is very simple, and or is not part of the syntax, I am afraid.

As you can see from the documentation in the zope.configuration source code, the syntax is always of the form verb arguments, where verb is one of have, not-have, installed and not-installed.

have and not-have test for a registered feature. A registered feature is simply an opaque string that has been registered with a <meta:provides feature="something" /> tag. Use it to flag that something has been included without tying it to a particular implementation. Example:

<configure zcml:condition="have apidoc">
    <!-- only when the apidoc feature has been provided -->
</configure>

installed and not-installed simply try to import the named package; if the import succeeds so does the installed test. Example:

<configure zcml:condition="installed sqlalchemy"> 
    <!-- only when the sqlalchemy module can be imported -->
</configure>
Martijn Pieters
I wrote a component that can use multiple implementations of a crypto function depending on which is installed. For my 'or' I can probably put the same `<meta provides feature="something">` in two zcml:condition blocks and then register my component in a third. Thanks!
joeforker