serial numbers

January 17, 200124 yr

I hope someone can give me an answer to a problem I am having.

What I am trying to achieve is a serial number script.

I have 4 fields (all global Numbers) 1 field is for leading zeros 1 field is a start number

1 field is a previous number and 1 field is a new number.

I run the serial numbers from a script and they work fine on one computer but when I

network the file the serial number will not update on the server but it will update on the

computer it is being used on WHY?

January 17, 200124 yr

You are discovering what global field are all about. Globals can only be used in the manner you suggest in a single user file. In a multi-user file opened by a guest, globals take on the last value stored when the file was single user and are discarded when the guest closes the file. When you think about this in a multi user environment, it makes sense that globals must be made to work this way. Say you used a global for a loop counter, if two users were running the same loop, things would get VERY confused!

To do what you want, you will need to create another file with a single record and store the values as fields in this one record. You must also prevent a couple of things from happening. If a user clicks into this record but does not release it, no other user can use the record until it is released. If user one grabs a value and adds one, user two grabs a value and adds one, user one writes the value back, then user two writes the value back, the value will then be incorrect (+1 not +2). You must script so that this sort of thing doesn't happen in a multi-user environment.

In a multi-user environment, it is important to understand how FM works to avoid problems.

-bd

[This message has been edited by LiveOak (edited January 17, 2001).]