Newbie: ZODB or mysql?

[alan runyan]

> I am not sure which is a better choice for an application I am writing.
> I have much more experisnce with relation databases than object databases.
>
> The application is attemping to submit charges to VISA and then at the end
> of the day do a settlement on successful ones.

do you need the data to be accessible to nonPython applications?

> I am going to need the ability to search by date on these records for
> settlement and reporting. I am not sure that ZODB is designed for that
task.
> I know it is an object database... but I am stuck in the mindset of
needing
> rows.

not at all, you can traverse the objects and pick n' choose on attributes
(dates) of objects stored in ZODB.  I dont think ZCatalog is easily used
outside of the ZOPE framework, i.e. the Standalone distrbution of ZODB.

> Does anyone have an idea which would be more suitable for the task?

if your data lends itself to being heirarchical and lots of your data
objects need persistenance (not only a few attributes, but the entire
object -- especially complex objects)  then ZODB sounds like you get alot of
functionality for free.  you didnt provide enough info, but if you are
dealing with financial data - which is usually tabular and need to be
accessed by a variety of applications then RDBMS is definetly the way to go.

cheers,
~runyaga