Thanks again for your post, and my sincere apologies for the delay in writing (I've been off and then had to sort out some other stuff which required all of my limited attention!).
Thanks also to the off-list help from David Rushby. His advice which sort of worked was basically: Using a database interface that allows you to take advantage of prepared statements and bound parameters, as in: cur.execute("update table_1 set blob_field_1 = ? where other_field_1 = ?", ('blob string value', 'other field value')) This was a slightly different python syntax to that which I was using, and seems to work - but only when using it straight from Python. I can run this absolutely fine (even using gvib!) from the python instance in the Plone installation (Plone\Python\python.exe). There are absolutely no errors, and it updates the field. However, copying the function almost exactly (just inserting a "self" parameter before the two notes/key parameters .. or even trying it without) does not work. When I call this function, Plone freezes - no errors, nothing, just everything freezes up (there's nothing I can see in the log files apart from it calling the page). I don't know if this is of any significance, but when this happens, for any calls to a page served by Plone, the browser tries to open the page, but nothing happens, no page not found errors, etc, it just keeps trying. Once Plone has been stopped, then the page not found appears. I doubt its of any use, but you can't have too much info!! Anyway, the function in the external method is: def updateEntityNotes(self,notes,entKey): try: dbCon = gvib.connect(theDB, userName, userPass) cur=dbCon.cursor() cur.execute("UPDATE ENTITY SET EN_NOTES=? WHERE EN_KEY=?",(notes,int(entKey))) dbCon.commit() return 'ok' except: return '<b>Error:</b> Sorry, your request could not be processed correctly.<br> '+str(traceback.format_exception(sys.exc_type, sys.exc_value, sys.exc_traceback)) And it is called with a dtml-let call (so the result can be used): <dtml-let err="updateEntityNotes(theNotes,theKey)"> (theNotes and theKey have already been subject to calls to be str() and int() respectively). I just tested the interface to this from Plone, removing any database access at all, and just returning a random statement, and it works fine. So Plone is accessing the external method, there are no imported functions used that aren't used in other external methods, so it just seems to be executing the cur.execute() statement. Without the dbCon.commit(), Plone still crashes. Can anyone tell me why the actual python instance that came with Plone can do this fine, but Plone itself can't? Kind regards, and thanks once again to everyone who has helped me. Ashley ----- Original Message ----- From: "bobb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ashley Lloyd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <zope-db@zope.org> Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 6:39 PM Subject: Re: [Zope-DB] Zope/Plone, interbase, and blob fields > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ashley Lloyd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <zope-db@zope.org> > Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 6:55 AM > Subject: [Zope-DB] Zope/Plone, interbase, and blob fields > > > > Apologies if this appears twice - I initially sent from the wrong > address!! > > > > Hi, I've been having trouble updating BLOB (subtype text) fields from > Zope. > > > > I've a table with several fields, one of which is a blob. Creating a > record > > works fine, but when I attempt to update a record, I get an error. > Initially > > I used gvib, but recently (thanks to a lot of help from another list) I > > changed to kinterbasdbDA, and I still get errors. > > The errors I get are as follows: > > Error Type ProgrammingError > > Error Value (-413, 'execute.isc_dsql_execute: conversion error from string > > "BLOB". ') > > Error Trace Traceback (most recent call last): > > File "C:\Program > > Files\ESOPPlone\Zope\lib\python\DocumentTemplate\DT_Try.py", line 149, in > > render_try_except > > result = render_blocks(self.section, md) > > File "C:\Program > > Files\ESOPPlone\Zope\lib\python\DocumentTemplate\DT_Util.py", line 201, in > > eval > > return eval(code, d) > > File "", line 2, in f > > File "C:\Program Files\ESOPPlone\Zope\lib\python\Shared\DC\ZRDB\DA.py", > line > > 428, in __call__ > > else: result=DB__.query(query, self.max_rows_) > > File "C:\Program > > Files\ESOPPlone\Zope\lib\python\Products\kinterbasdbDA\db.py", line 198, > in > > query > > self.cursor.execute(src) > > File "C:\Program > > > Files\ESOPPlone\Zope\lib\python\Products\kinterbasdbDA\kinterbasdb\__init__. > > py", line 585, in execute > > res = _kinterbasdb.execute(self._C_cursor, sql, params) > > ProgrammingError: (-413, 'execute.isc_dsql_execute: conversion error from > > string "BLOB". ') > > I also get a similar error (same value & type) when just testing the SQL > > method in the ZMI, even when the SQL that the method generates is just: > > UPDATE ENTITY > > SET EN_NOTES = 'Hello world' > > WHERE EN_KEY = 12 > > The metatata of the table has the notes field definition as: > > EN_NOTES BLOB SUB_TYPE 1 SEGMENT SIZE 80, > > Maybe you should try changing the blob type? (as a test, anyway) > For InterBase 6 there are reserved 7 subtypes: > > 0 - Unstructured, generally applied to binary data or data of an > indeterminate type > 1 - Text > 2 - Binary language representation (BLR) > 3 - Access control list > 4 - (Reserved for future use) > 5 - Encoded description of a table's current metadata > 6 - Description of multi-database transaction that finished irregularly > > or possbly sub_type -1 segment size 65535 ---user defined subtype -1 with > segment size of 64K for example > > hth > > bobb > > > Any update that does not involve this field works fine, and the field can > be > > set to null, but it will not allow me to update. > > I am running quite an old version of Zope - its from a Plone install. > > Zope Version - (Zope 2.6.1 (binary release, python 2.1, win32-x86), python > > 2.1.3, win32) > > Python Version - 2.1.3 (#35, Apr 8 2002, 17:47:50) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)] > > System Platform - win32 > > I got quite a bit of help from the general list, but no-one could > understand > > why I was getting this error, especially when in one case, someone else > had > > a remarkably similar setup, and even sent me his database adaptor, and he > > doesn't get the errors! I even removed all variables, and just tested the > > SQL exactly as it was above (not generated by dtml-sqlvar tags at all), > and > > still got the errors. > > Can anyone help? > > Thanks in advance > > Ashley > > _______________________________________________ > > Zope-DB mailing list > > Zope-DB@zope.org > > http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-db > > _______________________________________________ Zope-DB mailing list Zope-DB@zope.org http://mail.zope.org/mailman/listinfo/zope-db