Problem Understanding URL

Jared Hall <JHall-CjZoFDOIhHZ8UrSeD/[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.web.zope.general
Message-ID <[email protected]>
I think I have a simple question about how Zope is handling requests. My current task is to understand an already-written Zope web application.

One thing I can't wrap my head around is this URL:

https://mysite.com/UserManagement/Users/asmithS/

Speaking in Zope terms, the UserManagement object is contained in the top-level product. In the UserManagement object, there is a Users object. That's all fine and dandy, run of the mill, acquisition/containment. However, the Users object has no asmithS object. In fact, asmithS is just a username, which makes the last field in the URL essentially a parmeter on the Users object.

From examining the behavior of the webapp and the code itself, I know that the index_html method of the Users object is what is returned from this request, which is a Page Template that displays the user information based on the parameter.

All of what I've said so far could be wrong, so feel free to correct me if I've mis-spoken. The problem I have is that this asmithS guy seems magical. I can't figure out how the index_html knows to be called with the username as a parameter(obviously the index_html function doesn't explicitly require the parameter).

What I BELIEVE is happening: the asmithS argument is processed before the page template renders. For example, when asmithS is given, a lookup is performed on the database that adds variables to the REQUEST object such as FirstName, LastName, etc. I can't find this happening but I think it must exist.

From the zpt file:

<td valign="top" tal:content="here/LastName">Doe</td>

What I want to know is: How can do these URL arguments work? A more advanced question would be: how do you think these here/*** variables are being added to the context.

I'm actually using Zope 2.

Thanks for any help

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