I'm trying to get my first External Method working. <!--#var "SQLTimeDiff(_['startdate'], _['starttime'], _['enddate'], _['endtime'])" --> The error I'm getting is: <!-- Error type: TypeError Error value: read-only character buffer, class --> <!-- Traceback (innermost last): File /usr/local/Zope/Zope-2.0.0a1-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/Publish.py, line 255, in publish_module File /usr/local/Zope/Zope-2.0.0a1-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/Publish.py, line 157, in publish File /usr/local/Zope/Zope-2.0.0a1-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/mapply.py, line 154, in mapply (Object: billing2) File /usr/local/Zope/Zope-2.0.0a1-src/lib/python/ZPublisher/Publish.py, line 98, in call_object (Object: billing2) File /usr/local/Zope/Zope-2.0.0a1-src/lib/python/OFS/DTMLDocument.py, line 181, in __call__ (Object: billing2) File /usr/local/Zope/Zope-2.0.0a1-src/lib/python/OFS/DTMLDocument.py, line 177, in __call__ (Object: billing2) File /usr/local/Zope/Zope-2.0.0a1-src/lib/python/DocumentTemplate/DT_String.py, line 514, in __call__ (Object: billing2) File /usr/local/Zope/Zope-2.0.0a1-src/lib/python/DocumentTemplate/DT_In.py, line 599, in renderwb (Object: get_current_billable_items) File /usr/local/Zope/Zope-2.0.0a1-src/lib/python/DocumentTemplate/DT_Util.py, line 315, in eval (Object: SQLTimeDiff(_['startdate'], _['starttime'], _['enddate'], _['endtime'])) File <string>, line 0, in ? File /usr/local/Zope/Zope-2.0.0a1-src/lib/python/Products/ExternalMethod/ExternalMethod.py, line 254, in __call__ (Object: SQLTimeDiff) (Info: (('04-07-1999', '11:11:01', '04-07-1999', '12:11:04'), {}, None)) TypeError: (see above) --> This is on: Zope version: (unreleased version) Python version: 1.5.2 (#1, May 28 1999, 14:49:17) [GCC 2.7.2.3] System Platform: linux2 Process ID: 24244 Running for: 3 min 44 sec I just upgraded to 2.0.0a1 from 1.10.2-linux-x86 in hopes of fixing this. I saw a post on the list and a mention in the bug db which mentioned this error, and suggested that it was related to change in the way exceptions are handled. It looks to mee that the data is being passed correctly, though it doesn't seem to be getting to the external method SQLTimeDiff. Thanks in advance, Evelyn Mitchell -- http://www.tummy.com/ Consulting and Software for Linux and Unix XVScan - Scanning software for Linux, HP-UX, Solaris, FreeBSD and BSD/OS