i wrote up an interface to allow for module registration in the dtml namespace, _ its got major caveats, but it might be useful for some. at the moments its just a stop gap till the new python methods come along. at the moment if just allows for people to write more code in dtml:( or ttw python methods. it might be useful to allow ttw developers access to some modules without allowing them use of XXXpython_methods since the configuration file that defines the imported modules resides on the FS. an example use <dtml-let y="_.poplib.POP3('mail.earthlink.net')"> <dtml-var "y.welcome"> <dtml-var "y.user('kthangavelu')"> <dtml-var "y.pass_('ipc9@longbeach')"> <dtml-var "y.stat()"> </dtml-let> and the response +OK EarthLink POP server (version: EL_3_10 ) at pop04.earthlink.net. <21615.970119687@pop04.earthlink.net> +OK Password required for kthangavelu. +OK kthangavelu has 0 messages (0 octets). (0, 0) personally i thinks it better to just pass the module off to a python method and let it do the work. real coding in dtml is heinous, maybe even a crime against humanity. how it works. it reads a module configuration from the FS. fmt is currently module_name: class_name, class_name it tries to import the module and than place the module in the namespace dict. - usual python discovery rules apply (python_path, curdir) it sets the magic key __allow__access_to_unprotected_subobjects=1 on all imported modules. it allows you to define classes in modules those you want to interact with. defining those classes allows you to interact meaningfully with instances otherwise zope's security policy will bump you because the container doesn't define proper permissions or the magic key. caveats: it hasn't had much testing, i did it as proof of concept and because i had an itch. you can't accces any attributes of any object that doesn't define __allow__access_to_unprotected_subobjects=1 an example where this is a pain, are getting filehandles back from libraries, like urllib.urlopen (note. urllib is not ts). BE VERY VERY WARY OF THREAD SAFETY ISSUES it might be very much like holding a loaded gun to your server;) possible improvements: allow for nested modules & classes ? if people think this is useful enough, i'll package it up as a product. installation. create a directory in your products folder (mines called ZModules) drop in the attached file. write a configuration file restart zope sample config file. poplib:POP3 mimetypes Cheers Kapil # DISTRIBUTED UNDER THE ZPL # Author kthangavelu@earthlink.net # made for zope, www.zope.org import App import App.Common import Globals import os from DocumentTemplate import DT_Util from DocumentTemplate.DT_Util import d from string import strip,split,replace config_path=os.path.join(App.Common.package_home(globals()), 'zmodules.config') fh = open(config_path) modules_list=fh.readlines() #print 'read config file' counter = 0 for module in modules_list: module = strip(module) module = replace(module, '\012', '') if len(module) <= 1: continue module_config = split(module, ':') if len(module_config) > 1: classes = split(module_config[1], ',') else : classes = [] module = strip(module_config[0]) module_name = module[:] try: exec('import %s'%(module)) except: continue loaded_mod = eval(module) s_classes = classes[:] for class_name in classes: class_name=strip(class_name) if len(class_name) == 0: continue try: getattr(loaded_mod, class_name).__allow_access_to_unprotected_subobjects__=1 except: s_classes.pop(s.index(s_classes)) d[module_name] = loaded_mod loaded_mod.__allow_access_to_unprotected_subobjects__=1 print 'success: loaded module %s and classes %s'%(module_name, s_classes)