[Zope] manipulating zodb from independent database connection

Does anybody have a script available that shows how to insert objects into the ZODB root['Application'] from a non-zope process outside the Zope application? Everytime I try to read root['Application'] I get a page template error. I'm using zope 2.5 (matches a book I like) and doing like so:

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from ZODB import FileStorage, DB storage = FileStorage.FileStorage('Data.fs') db = DB(storage) connection = db.open() root = connection.root()

Also, can the ZODB be altered this way on a running Zope instance? I would like to have a script run on cron and insert objects and remove objects from the ZODB while the zope instance application is running. I'd like these newly inserted objects to be Zpublishable as well. Thanks! Tim