I'd suggest our new DBObjects. They implement REAL classes, that are stored in a relational database - PostgreSQL, as MySQL is not too well-suited for transactions etc. But DBObjects are not for starters yet. Be prepared for reading the code and stuff like that.
lol, i'm still using zope ;-)))))
Currently, DBObjects just stores a very small footprint in the ZODB to make sure the objects can use all the Zope security etc. The data is stored in the SQL DB, so you can just use SQL for queries. The basic queries are auto-generated, like INSERTs or DELETEs, ...
sounds pretty nice in fact, i'll look into it... is it alpha software, beta, or can i rely on it for such a project (about 20.000 docs of 1500 signs approx) ? what are the shortcommings of using *normal* classes (appart from the fact that data.fs is gonna get real big ? a] does it slow down to a crawl ? b] does it crash, smoke and burn ? c] it is hjust baaaad practive ? d] ? $ven