[Zope] Request & has_key

[Philip Kilner]

Hi List,

I'm having problems with testing for the existence of a key in my 
request. I've had similar problems in the past, and asked the list in 
the past, but always managed to fumble my way out of them - now I seem 
to be 100% stuck!

I'm working on a page template which calls a python script. This script 
needs to: -

- Test for the existence of a counter called "job_step".
- If it does not exist, initialise it as one (it's an integer).
- If it does exist, perform conditional tasks based on it's value.

My script reads, in part: -

req = context.REQUEST

if req.has_key('job_step'):

     if req.job_step == 1:
         do that...

     else:
         do the other...
else:
     container.REQUEST.set('job_step', 1)
     do this...

...and that's where my problem lies - the test /always/ fails!

If I throw the whole request into the page template, I can see that the 
key "job_step" is listed, with a value of one. Subsequently, a second 
script called by the same template increments it to two, which I can 
also see, if I comment out the line which sets it to one - but when the 
whole page is thrown for "step 2", the test fails and the value is reset 
to one.

So: -

- Can anyone help me understand what I'm doing wrong?

- I've been advised in the past that "REQUEST", although it "acts" like 
a dictionary is not actually a dictionary. Is this so?

- Is there a way of testing that "req" is a dictionary?

- If it isn't, shouldn't "has_key" barf?

This feels like a basic, stupid, question, but I'm stuck and - apart 
from reminding me that I've been here before, Google is apparently /not/ 
my friend today...

TIA

Cheers,

PhilK