So, the default actions of panels have them taking the place of a node, or existing like a view outside of the node system.
For reasons outside of the context of this discussion I want to have a panel embeded in a node.
I have yet to find a "Panel Reference CCK" module, or anything that would do something similar.
I've tried creating a panel as a node and then referencing that panel via a node reference cck but I cannot take the panel node's id and render it fully. - a theme('node',node_load($panel_nid)) simply only renders the default node fields as well as any cck that you've added to the Panel content-type.
Anyone know how to render a panel give a node id? Or simply put, how to embed a panel?
Update: Why Not Use Panels??
Even though I feel like this discussion is outside the realm of my issue I'll briefly explain why (against all odds) I don't want to use panels.
The past couple of months I've been exploring the context module (from developmentseed) and trying to utilize more native drupal constructs (blocks, regions, node-$type.tpl.php).
I don't want to use panels because:
Node Automatic Path(s) become useless when using a panel (or a view page for that matter) - I enjoy using the real node paths so any context in where a node->link is displayed it will direct to the proper page.
Context Module - This module reacts on many different things one of which is on a node view page, which will not trigger if the page being viewed is a panel.
Native Drupal Constructs - A normal drupal node has a node-$type.tpl.php, it has cck fields which are accessible in that template, and It can be preprocessed with great ease and power. - A panel is not a node and the cck abilities in combination of a node panel isn't feasible on a large scale. I want to simply put all my efforts into styling one content type and not have to duplicate my themes for multiple content types (views/panels)
Now... how do I embed a panel? ie. render a full panel problematically. My thinking is that if I can render a full panel I could associate a panel with a certain content type and have the panel load within the theme of that content type.