I need to generate unique ID's for objects I'll be creating from DTML. This of course needs to be thread safe. Although I can't do this out of the box from within DTML (that I know of), I could get thread safety using an external method, or a persistant object written in Python, and using locks provided by the Python thread module. I think a persistant object (lets call it ZSequence) would be best. However, all this falls down if we want the code to run under ZEO in the future. And using a SEQUENCE in my Oracle database might work for me, but I want avoid using my RDBMS if possible. Can I use the Transaction system? I don't want to do a full commit, as this would have unknow effects on whatever is referencing this object. Can I commit changes to a dirty object, without affecting the rest of the transaction? (I've looked at cPersistence.c, which did nothing but remind we why I havn't programmed in C for years :-) ) Any thoughts? Have I missed some fundamental ZODB concept that solves these issues? ___ // Zen (alias Stuart Bishop) Work: zen@cs.rmit.edu.au // E N Senior Systems Alchemist Play: zen@shangri-la.dropbear.id.au //__ Computer Science, RMIT WWW: http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/~zen