gistfile1.py

from Products.Five import BrowserView
from zope.interface import implementer
from zope.publisher.interfaces.browser import IPublishTraverse


@implementer(IPublishTraverse)
class AuthorView(BrowserView):
    
    user_id = None
    def publishTraverse(self, request, name):
        self.user_id = name
        return self

# Now the template can use view/user_id and other view code can use view.user_id