I have an external method like the following def make_an_element(self,REQUEST): new_elem = self.createElement(REQUEST.new_elem_name) new_elem.setAttribute('hello','there') self.appendChild(new_elem) I call this on an XMLdocument root node and get the following error at the setAttribute stage : Error Type: AttributeError Error Value: aq_base Troubleshooting Suggestions The URL may be incorrect. The parameters passed to this resource may be incorrect. A resource that this resource relies on may be encountering an error. For more detailed information about the error, please refer to the HTML source for this page. If the error persists please contact the site maintainer. Thank you for your patience. Traceback (innermost last): File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/Publish.py, line 222, in publish_module File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/Publish.py, line 187, in publish File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/Zope/__init__.py, line 221, in zpublisher_exception_hook (Object: Manageable) File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/Publish.py, line 171, in publish File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/mapply.py, line 160, in mapply (Object: acceptLiveFileInfo2) File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/Publish.py, line 112, in call_object (Object: acceptLiveFileInfo2) File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/Products/ExternalMethod/ExternalMethod.py, line 263, in __call__ (Object: acceptLiveFileInfo2) (Info: ((<Document instance at 8624868>, <h3>form</h3><table><tr valign="top" align="left"><th>fdate</th><td>001108</td></tr><tr valign="top" ... align="left"><th>fname</th><td>p001108_0000</td></tr><tr File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/Extensions/vs_live_file.py, line 32, in acceptLiveFileInfo2 (Object: Manageable) File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/Products/XMLDocument/Node.py, line 753, in setAttribute (Object: Manageable) File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/OFS/PropertyManager.py, line 243, in _setProperty (Object: Manageable) File /usr/local/zope/Zope-2.2.2-src/lib/python/OFS/PropertyManager.py, line 198, in valid_property_id (Object: Manageable) AttributeError: (see above) any ideas ? regards Matt Bion