Best: Python API / abstracted framework for data access, used by Zope Python product; well documented with UML diagrams of class relationships and inheritance; ZPT for presentation. Persistent objects in ODB represent underlying relational data. Reuse of code and patterns on future products.
You know there is a tool called DBObjects out there that does the R2O mapping for you... ;-) It is used in some major projects too... Unfortunately, you need to know how to write Python products (just a little bit of it); one day I will use MakeProduct to generate all that automatically as well. Site: http://demo.iuveno-net.de/iuveno/Products/DBObjects
The downside to this is that it makes you do more work than simply using a DA... but it buys flexibility...
DBObjects does not bypass anything... :-) Regards, Stephan -- Stephan Richter CBU - Physics and Chemistry Student Web2k - Web Design/Development & Technical Project Management