It still gets called twice because you assigned the variable your using twice the method, you didn't *call* the method. Try: <!--#with "_.namespace(story_id=Article())"--> -----Original Message----- From: vanroose wim [mailto:vanroose@ruca.ua.ac.be] Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 1:11 PM To: zope@zope.org Subject: [Zope] ReturnValue of ExternalMethod I have an ExternalMethod Article that may only be called once. But I want to use the returnvalue, a string, in two places. Use of namespace doesnot solve the problem <!--#with "_.namespace(story_id=Article)"--> <!--#var story_id--> <!--#var story_id--> <!--#/with--> The function is still called Twice Wim Vanroose