[Zope] A question on how external methods reference modules

[J. Cameron Cooper]

Goldthwaite, Joe wrote:
...

>I basically created two modules. In module1.py I have my stub function that chains to module2.py.
>
>module1.py
>
>   import module2
>
>   def ReturnData():
>      """Return some test data"""
>      return module2.GetTheData()
>
>module2.py
>
>   def GetTheData():
>      """Return the actual data"""
>      return """the actual data"""
>
>I can run this in python and it works.  After the import module2, I can do a dir on the module2 namespace and I see "GetTheData" as one of the items in the list.  When I add module1->ReturnData to the external module in Zope and execute it, I get the error "module 'mytest' module has no attribute 'GetTheData'".
>If I modify ReturnData to this;
>
>   import module2
>   def ReturnData():
>	"""Return some test data"""
>      return dir(module2)
>
>the string returned does not show my "GetTheData" function in the list.  I was getting an error that 'module2' wasn't found so I had to append it's path using the sys.path.append function.  Now I'm not getting an error so I think it's finding module2 but it doesn't seem to be finding the function.  I'm confused.  Can anyone explain what's going on?
>  
>
Running the external method that calls 'module1.ReturnData' isn't like 
running it from regular Python. There's (I believe) some Zope context 
involved.

I suspect that you could import your second module if it were in a 
product and you imported it from 
'Products.TheProduct.Extensions.module2' and Extensions had an 
__init__.py. But really, isn't it easier to make GetTheData also an 
external method and use it as a Zope method?

          --jcc

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