diff --git a/gluon/packages/dal b/gluon/packages/dal
index f523a248..b4114ea5 160000
--- a/gluon/packages/dal
+++ b/gluon/packages/dal
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit f523a24812c9545e20de304e5edd06c79890cd91
+Subproject commit b4114ea55d36248e874e83e1fd0912c4774845c1
diff --git a/gluon/template.py b/gluon/template.py
index 41da7f2d..45a81265 100644
--- a/gluon/template.py
+++ b/gluon/template.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ import os
 import cgi
 import logging
 from re import compile, sub, escape, DOTALL
-from gluon._compat import StringIO, unicodeT, to_unicode, to_bytes, to_native
+from gluon._compat import StringIO, unicodeT, to_unicode, to_bytes, to_native, basestring
 
 try:
     # have web2py
@@ -778,7 +778,7 @@ def parse_template(filename,
     """
 
     # First, if we have a str try to open the file
-    if isinstance(filename, str):
+    if isinstance(filename, basestring):
         fname = os.path.join(path, filename)
         try:
             with open(fname, 'rb') as fp: