It is a bit awkward, but I'm just learning Python/OpenERP. A class is not called by the class definition itself, but by the name defined inside the class. In the case of base_import, this class is called "base_import.import", which is called from the other elements in the module. It IS used as the standard import function under the import button. Nevertheless I am interested in alternative import uses with this module as the basis, so if anybody has done this already, please share it.