c = REQUEST.get('clearing_id','') context.manage_addFolder(c) # this works # Now what I want to do is add a document to the folder # If I include a hard-coded value for the folder name I just created as a test, it works # But this doesn't: context.c.manage_addDocument('NewDoc')

I think you should be able to do either of (both untested): getattr(context, c).manage_addDocument('NewDoc') context[c].manage_addDocument('NewDoc') As far as I understand, your version doesn't work because you are telling python/zope to look for the c string object that is an attribute of context, instead of telling it to get hold of the attribute of context that is called whatever str(c) returns. hth tim