Brad Clements wrote:

I have a document that is called with or without a query value.

http://myhost/mydocument?list=thislist

or

http://myhost/mydocument

What's the best way to determine if list is defined in the request? I tried

<!--#if REQUEST.has_key(list)-->

That didn't work, either with or without quotes

Did you you try: <!--#if "REQUEST.has_key('list')"--> In all of the examples you've given, you've ommitted quotes for 'list'. If you use list in an expression without quotes, you are trying to get the value of list. In most of your examples, you *really* want the string (ie name) list.

Also, whats the correct way to determine if list points to a valid object, I tried this.

<!--#with REQUEST--> <!--#if _.has_key(list)--> <!--#var _.getitem(list,1)-->

You are missing a lot of quotes.

This seems to work if list is pointing to a valid object, but I get "Sorry, Zope is offline" error if list is an invalid object name.

I'm not sure what you mean by valid. If you want to test if the name has a definition, then just use: <!--#if list-->

What I really want to know is if list names something IN the current Folder that contains the current document..

Any suggestions?

<!--#if list--><!--#unless "REQUEST.has_key('list')"--> ... <!--#/unless--><!--#/if--> Jim -- Jim Fulton mailto:jim@digicool.com Technical Director (540) 371-6909 Python Powered! Digital Creations http://www.digicool.com http://www.python.org Under US Code Title 47, Sec.227(b)(1)(C), Sec.227(a)(2)(B) This email address may not be added to any commercial mail list with out my permission. Violation of my privacy with advertising or SPAM will result in a suit for a MINIMUM of $500 damages/incident, $1500 for repeats.