[Zope] Date-Time or SQL (Oracle) time.. or...

[Chris Beaumont]

Hello,

Another newbie question that I hope doesn't sound too stupid..  (I 
guess I already know the answer to that question.. it DOES... 
*sheepish grin*)

Have a little patience with me, I'm learning things and having fun, 
so in a month or three...   *sigh*



Anyway....

I have some questions about the best way to update time fields on my Zope site.

This issue has been "the bane of my life" for the past three days.....*grin*

Basically these are fields in records describing events (programs and 
workshops, and soon, talks) which I am listing on my site..

The dates are in an Oracle 7 table. I'm using DCOracle and the Zope 
OracleDA to interact with these data sources from Zope.

Quite simply, I'm confused..  I've been following to the letter the 
ZSQL Methods Guide, but I'm completely missing something important 
about the relationship between Zope date-time and Oracle dates. I've 
scoured the lists and haven't found anything there either..How-tos 
deal with general date-time issues.. yes.. but this is on the border 
.. perhaps.. DateTime vs. Oracle SQL.

*pause for dramatic effect*

The How-tos I've seen don't answer several (basic) questions..

Note: So far I have just been working with dates, not hours, minutes, etc.

I've noticed that if I insert data using Oracle's default and not 
very useful "native" format ie. 01-Jan-00 things work on the insert 
side. Sort-of...

I've also successfully used "TO_DATE" to insert data in SQLMethods.. 
in forms I built myself..

But then using the exact same code in another (originally 
ZNolk-generated, but much edited..) form and SQL method.. no luck.. 
It's usually not even making it out of Zope's error check routines..

Perhaps this is a clue.. I've noticed that when displaying the 
results of a query, Zope translates Oracle's outputted dates into 
Date-Time.

Does Zope also do translation on the input end? And if so, what do I 
need to do to be able to consistantly input dates in MM/DD/YYYY 
without problems..

I've been having major problems with <dtml-sqlvar> choking on dates 
and I don't have the foggiest idea what I am doing wrong. Do I need 
to put more effort into learning TO_DATE and TO_CHAR (Oracle-isms) 
better or am I totally barking up the wrong tree..

(i.e. Zope translates everything into Date-Time)

What is the best way to intercept SQL so I can see what is being sent 
to Oracle..?  (I followed the suggestions in the How-to on this 
subject and Zope threw an error)

I'm sorry this sounds so stupid, but I have been running into a brick 
wall..so to speak..  And in my scheme of things, dates, and the 
simple modification of them..  is really important...

Thank you,

Chris