[Zope] External methods and DTML ?

[Gardner Pomper]

Hi,

I am using Zope to build a front end to a bunch of Unix processes. I need to use external methods to read/write files and kick off the jobs. In these external methods, I use DocumentTemplate.HTMLFile() to build the HTML forms for data entry.

My problem is that I don't seem to be able to hook the DocumentTemplate.HTMLFile() to a DTML file created in Zope. Therefore I have to create the DTML files manually. This isn't too bad, but when I change the DTML files during development, Zope seems to have cached the old copy and I often end up having to kill off the Zope server and restart it just to try out the new version of the DTML file. This is annoying and time consuming.

Is there some way to get the files reread each time? Failing that, is there a way for an external method to access a DTML file that Zope knows about (and will that help me with this refresh problem)?

I am pretty new to Zope (a week or so). If there is an easier way to do all this, I would be happy to hear it.

- Gardner