Creating new report templates - jean/Bika-LIMS GitHub Wiki

If you want to add customized report templates, you have to create a new Plone add-on aka Python package.

There are only a few simple steps required.

• Create the add-on using ZopeSkel for all the boilerplate code.
• Add report templates to the add-on and register them in your ZCML.
• Make your add-on available to buildout.

If you don't have ZopeSkel already installed, add the following list of eggs to your buildout.cfg.

eggs =
    ZopeSkel
    Paste
    PasteDeploy
    PasteScript

Don't forget to always run buildout after changes to the buildout.cfg. Also remember to keep the indentation in buildout.cfg consistent between lines.

Now, in a command prompt or shell window, change directory to the src folder of your Plone instance, and create your customization add-on:

zopeskel plone customer.reports

You will probably need to type the full path to the zopeskel script. This should be located in the bin folder of your Plone instance.

You can Change customer.reports to whatever you like.

Answer the question for Expert Mode with easy and hit return on the following questions.

Now you have a new Plone add-on:

customer.reports
├── customer
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── reports
│       ├── configure.zcml
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── tests.py
├── docs
│   ├── HISTORY.txt
│   ├── INSTALL.txt
│   ├── LICENSE.GPL
│   └── LICENSE.txt
├── README.txt
├── setup.cfg
└── setup.py

Change into the directory customer.reports/customer/reports and add a new directory for your report templates.

cd customer.reports/customer/reports
mkdir templates

Add some templates to the newly created directory. As a starting point you can copy the default template from the bika.lims repository. You can browse directly to the default template by clicking here.

Next you have to register this directory to be found by Bika LIMS. Edit your configure.zcml file in the appropriate places:

<configure
    xmlns="http://namespaces.zope.org/zope"
    xmlns:five="http://namespaces.zope.org/five"
    xmlns:i18n="http://namespaces.zope.org/i18n"
    xmlns:plone="http://namespaces.plone.org/plone"
    i18n_domain="customer.reports">
    <five:registerPackage package="." initialize=".initialize" />
    <!-- -*- extra stuff goes here -*- -->
   <include package="plone.resource" file="meta.zcml"/>
   <plone:static
       directory="templates"
       type="reports"
       name="customer"
   />
</configure>

In the plone:static directive you have to match the directory name to the one created in the previous step.

type must be set to reports in order to get recognized by bika.lims as a report template resource.

The name is solely for identifying your new report template in the pull-down on the publishing process.

Now, you need to tell Plone to use your newly created addon. To do this, edit buildout.cfg:

• Add "customer.reports" to the "eggs=" section.
• Add "src/customer.reports" to the "develop=" section.

Now, run "bin/buildout" again. If this completes without errors, you should be able to install the new add-on in Plone.

• If you already have a Plone site, you can browse to site-setup->addons, and activate the new addon.

• If you are creating a new Plone site, you should select "Bika LIMS" and also select your new add-on, before clicking the "Add Plone Site" button.