bsddb.dbshelve problem unpickling objects from another directory

[BG]

I am experimenting with dbshelve in Python 2.3.3 on Win2k. The problem is
that objects put into the dbshelve by a script in one directory cannot be
unpickled by script running in another directory. Why?

I am writing my own collection called testcollection to hold testitems. The
testcollection uses dbshelve to store its items to disk. I want design a
package called testmodules.

So I have the following:

a directory called testmodules that holds the following files:
__init__.py
testcollection.py
testitem.py

I have a file called test.py:
---start code---
from testcollection import testcollection
from testitem import testitem

tc = testcollection()

t1 = testitem("car")
t2 = testitem("sportscar")

tc["1"]=t1
tc["2"]=t2

print "iteritems()"
print "\n".join(["%s, %s" % (k, v.name) for k, v in tc.iteritems()])

print "itervalues()"
print "\n".join(["%s" % (v.name, ) for v in tc.itervalues()])

print "values()"
print "\n".join(["%s" % (v.name, ) for v in tc.values()])

print "info"
print tc.dbinfo()
--- end code ---
If I execute this script from within the directory testmodules it works
perfectly. I have got another script test.py that I execute outside the
directory test modules. This script looks like this:

---start code---
from testmodules.testcollection import testcollection
from testmodules.testitem import testitem

tc = testcollection()

t3 = testitem("SUV")

tc["3"]=t3

print "iteritems()"
print "\n".join(["%s, %s" % (k, v.name) for k, v in tc.iteritems()])

print "itervalues()"
print "\n".join(["%s" % (v.name, ) for v in tc.itervalues()])

print "values()"
print "\n".join(["%s" % (v.name, ) for v in tc.values()])

print "info"
print tc.dbinfo()
--- end code ---

When I run this script (after I ran testmodules/test.py) I will get the
following error message:
iteritems()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\DataCOnly2\Python\worldObjects\test\test.py", line 11, in ?
    print "\n".join(["%s, %s" % (k, v.name) for k, v in tc.iteritems()])
  File "C:\Python23\lib\UserDict.py", line 99, in iteritems
    yield (k, self[k])
  File "C:\Python23\lib\bsddb\dbshelve.py", line 107, in __getitem__
    return cPickle.loads(data)
ImportError: No module named testitem

When I clear all database files and first run test.py and than
testmodules/test.py I will get the same error message.

So objects made by a the script in one directory cannot be unpickled by a
script in another directory. Why? Anyone?

--- code of testcollection ---
from bsddb import dbshelve, db
import sys, os, inspect, shelve

class testcollection:
    def __init__(self):
        #open a multi reader, one writer database
        dir = os.path.dirname(inspect.getfile(testcollection)) + '/data/'
        if not os.path.exists(dir):
            os.mkdir(dir)
        self._envdir = dir
        self._dbfilename = 'testcollection.dbshelve'
        self._env = db.DBEnv()
        self._env.open(self._envdir,
db.DB_CREATE|db.DB_INIT_CDB|db.DB_INIT_MPOOL)
        self.items = dbshelve.open(self._dbfilename, dbenv=self._env)

    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
        self.items[key]=value

    def __getitem__(self, key):
        return self.items[key]

    def iteritems(self):
        return self.items.iteritems()

    def itervalues(self):
        return self.items.itervalues()

    def values(self):
        return self.items.values()

    def dbinfo(self):
        return self._env.lock_stat()
---end testcollection---

---start of testitem---
class testitem:
    def __init__(self, name="_none_"):
        self.name = name
---end testitem---

---start __init__.py---
__all__ = ["testcollection", "testitem"]
---end __init__.py---