Layers#

Layers allow you to activate different code paths and modules depending on the external configuration. Layers are useful in the following scenarios.

Code belonging to a theme is only active when that theme has been selected.
Mobile browsing code is only active when the site is being browsed on a mobile phone.

Layers are marker interfaces applied to the HTTPRequest object. They are usually used in conjunction with Zope Configuration Mark-up Language (ZCML) directives to dynamically activate various parts of the configuration, such as theme files or add-on product functionality.

Layers ensure that only one add-on product can override the specific Plone instance functionality in your site at a time, while still allowing you to have possibly conflicting add-on products in your buildout and ZCML. Multiple Plone site instances can share the same ZCML and code files.

Many ZCML directives take the optional layer parameter. Layers are activated when an add-on product is installed or a certain theme is activated. You can find an example of the layer attribute in the Chapter Using layers.

Using layers#

Some ZCML directives take a layer attribute, such as browser:page.

Given the following:

A layer interface defined in Python code, plonetheme.yourthemename.interfaces.IThemeSpecific.
Your add-on or theme package installed through the add-on product installer on your site instance.

Then views and viewlets from your product can be enabled on the site instance using the following ZCML:

<!-- Site actions override in YourTheme -->
<browser:viewlet
    name="plone.site_actions"
    manager="plone.app.layout.viewlets.interfaces.IPortalHeader"
    class=".siteactions.SiteActionsViewlet"
    layer="plonetheme.yourthemename.interfaces.IThemeSpecific"
    permission="zope2.View"
    />

Unconditional overrides#

If you want to override a view or a viewlet unconditionally for all sites without the add-on product installer support, you need to use overrides.zcml. You can override classes and templates in this file. To do this, you put the ZCML registration in a file called overrides.zcml in the package root, next to the top-most configure.zcml.

Creating a layer#

Developers can create layers for themes, extensions, behaviors, and other functions.

Theme layer#

Theme layers can be created through the following steps.

Subclass an interface from IDefaultPloneLayer:

from plone.theme.interfaces import IDefaultPloneLayer


class IThemeSpecific(IDefaultPloneLayer):
    """
    Marker interface that defines a Zope 3 skin layer bound to a Skin
    Selection in portal_skins.
    If you need to register a viewlet only for the "YourSkin"
    skin, this is the interface that must be used for the layer attribute
    in YourSkin/browser/configure.zcml.
    """

Register it in ZCML. The name must match the theme name.

<interface
    interface=".interfaces.IThemeSpecific"
    type="zope.publisher.interfaces.browser.IBrowserSkinType"
    name="SitsSkin"
    />

Register and set your theme as the default theme in profiles/default/skins.xml. Theme layers require that they are set as the default theme and not just activated on your Plone site. Example:

<object name="portal_skins" allow_any="False" cookie_persistence="False"
    default_skin="SitsSkin">

    <!-- define skins-based folder objects here if any -->

    <skin-path name="SitsSkin" based-on="Plone Default">
        <layer name="plone_skins_style_folder_name"
            insert-before="*"/>
    </skin-path>

</object>

Add-on layer for clean extensions#

An add-on product layer is enabled when an add-on product is installed. Since one Zope application server may contain several Plone sites, you need to keep enabled code paths separate by using add-on layers. Otherwise, all views and viewlets apply to all sites in one Zope application server.

You can enable views and viewlets specific to functional add-ons.
Unlike theme layers, add-on layers depend on the activated add-on products, not on the selected theme.

An add-on layer is a marker interface which is applied on the HTTPRequest object by Plone core logic.

First create an interface for your layer in your.product.interfaces.py:

""" Define interfaces for your add-on.
"""

import zope.interface

class IAddOnInstalled(zope.interface.Interface):
    """ A layer specific for this add-on product.

    This interface is referred in browserlayer.xml.

    All views and viewlets register against this layer will appear on
    your Plone site only when the add-on installer has been run.
    """

You then need to refer to this in the profile/default/browserlayer.xml file of your add-on installer to use it:

<layers>
    <layer
        name="your.product"
         interface="your.product.interfaces.IAddOnInstalled"
         />
</layers>

Note

The add-on layer registry is persistent and stored in the database. The changes to add-on layers are applied only when add-ons are installed or uninstalled.

Add-on layer for changing existing behavior#

You can also use layers to modify the behavior of Plone or another add-on.

To make sure that your own view is used, your layer must be more specific than the layer where the original view is registered.

For example, some z3cform things register their views on the IPloneFormLayer from plone.app.z3cform.interfaces.

If you want to override the ploneform-macros view that is registered on the IPloneFormLayer, your own layer must be a subclass of IPloneFormLayer.

If a view does not declare a specific layer, it becomes registered on the IDefaultBrowserLayer from zope.publisher.interfaces.browser.IDefaultBrowserLayer.

Manual layers#

Apply your layer to the HTTPRequest in the before_traverse hook, or before you call the code which looks up the interfaces.

In the example below, we turn on a layer for the request, which is later checked by the rendering code. This way some pages can ask for special View/Viewlet rendering.

# Defining layer

from zope.publisher.interfaces.browser import IBrowserRequest

class INoHeaderLayer(IBrowserRequest):
    """ When applied to HTTP request object, header animations
    or images are not rendered on this layer.

    If this layer is on a request, do not render header images.
    This allows uncluttered editing of header animations and images.
    """

# Applying layer for some requests (manually done in view)
# The browser page which renders the form
class EditHeaderAnimationsView(FormWrapper):

    form = HeaderCRUDForm

    def __call__(self):
        """ """

        # Signal viewlet layer that we are rendering
        # edit view for header animations and it is not meaningful
        # to try to render the big animation on this page
        zope.interface.alsoProvides(self.request, INoHeaderLayer)

        # Render the edit form
        return FormWrapper.__call__(self)

Troubleshooting instructions for layers#

Check that your view is working without a layer assigned globally.
Check that configure.zcml has a layer entry. Put some garbage to trigger a syntax error in configure.zcml to make sure that it is being loaded.
Add-on layer: check that profiles/default/browserlayer.xml has a matching entry with a matching name.
Theme layer: if it is a theme layer, check that there is a matching skins.xml entry.
Check that the layer name is spelled correctly in the view declaration.

Checking active layers#

This section describes a few strategies for developers to check active layers according to their type.

Layers are activated on the current request object#

Example:

if INoHeaderLayer.providedBy(self.request):
    # The page has asked to suspend rendering of the header animations
    return ""

Active themes and add-on products#

The registered_layers() method returns a list of all layers active on the site. Note that this is different from the list of layers which are applied on the current HTTP request object. The request object may contain manually activated layers.

Example:

from interfaces import IThemeSpecific
from plone.browserlayer.utils import registered_layers

if IThemeSpecific in registered_layers():
    # Your theme specific code
    pass
else:
    # General code
    pass

Getting active theme layer#

Only one theme layer can be active at once.

The active theme name is defined in portal_skins properties. This name can be resolved to a theme layer.

Debugging active layers#

You can check the activated layers from the HTTP request object by looking at self.request.__provides__.__iro__. Layers are evaluated from zero index (highest priority) to the last index (lowest priority).

Testing layers#

Plone testing tool kits will not register layers for you. You have to do it yourself somewhere in the boilerplate code, as shown in the following example.

from zope.interface import directlyProvides

directlyProvides(self.portal.REQUEST, IThemeLayer)

Plone Documentation v6.0

Layers

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