thank you very much Janko, this will no doubt save me a great deal of time :
You don't need to make a product. It's quite easy to edit properties from a custom form. You can use two document methods (DM) in your ZClass for this.
The first is just a form for editing (edit DM which calls update DM):
<dtml-var standard_html_header> <H2>Edit Info</H2> <form action=update method=post> <table> <tr> <td>Title</td> <td><input type=text name=title size=40 value="<dtml-var title>"></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Software Name</td> <td><input type=text name=sw-name size=40 value="<dtml-var sw-name>"></td> </tr> ...
(update DM) <dtml-call "REQUEST.set('ts', ZopeTime())"> <dtml-call "REQUEST.set('modified-date', ts)"> <dtml-call "propertysheets.item_info.manage_changeProperties(REQUEST)"> <dtml-call "RESPONSE.redirect(URL2+'/view')"> In the REQUEST I create a new value to change the property modified-date, this could probably done also with the let-tag. Than all changed values from the edit form are in REQUEST. item_info is a propertysheet in my ZClass.
i think i can safely say that saved a precious hour or six or running around like a headless chicken .... thank you very much ! :-)
I have learned a lot from the K!MnetNews package from Kevin Dangoor,
yeah, i just downloaded that ... you're right. thanks again - your help is much appreciated. chas