I need to do initialize some properties of new instances of a DataSkin subclass - ASPAccount. However, I can't put this in __init__ since the object hasn't been stored at that point. Doing self.__dict__['name'] = 'Rincewind' seems kinda ugly. Maybe newItem should by default call a function on newly created objects, say __init? I don't want to have to subclass Specialist (or in my case, LoginManager) each time I want to this, since it's a *very* common action. For example, *** Specialists.py.orig Wed Jul 19 12:37:32 2000 --- Specialists.py Wed Jul 19 12:38:18 2000 *************** *** 37,43 **** def newItem(self, key=None): """Create a new item""" # Default use first rack ! return self.rackList[0].__of__(self).newItem(key) def manage_refreshPlugIns(self, REQUEST=None): """Update plugin registries""" --- 37,46 ---- def newItem(self, key=None): """Create a new item""" # Default use first rack ! obj = self.rackList[0].__of__(self).newItem(key) ! if hasattr(obj, '__init'): ! obj.__init() ! return obj def manage_refreshPlugIns(self, REQUEST=None): """Update plugin registries"""