The problem is that one of your databases doesn't define the commit_sub() and abort_sub() methods on the DB class it exposes. You don't say which SQL database you're using, but this happened to me on a consulting project with ZOracleDA. A solution is to add the following methods to the database adapter's DB class inside DB.py:

def commit_sub(self, *arg, **kw): pass

def abort_sub(self, *arg, **kw): pass

This isn't optimal, because it sort of breaks transactional integrity, but it does make it work.

Thanks for your reply. I use ZPoPyDA (0.6.4 says the readme). I think I will not apply that patch (thanks nonetheless), because I have no requirements for indexing big amounts of text. And as I understand it, _indexing_ (as opposed to normal searches) is the only action where subtransactions help. My main motivation for posting was to get that problem into the public, so that others may find it while doing desperate searches in this mailing list ;-). And perhaps - if I dare - to suggest to disable subtransactions in ZCatalog by default. cheers, oliver