I'm not sure if I'm missing something here but I'm having a heck of a time with a particular global field. Everytime I open the database it is empty. I enter a number and it stays until I close. When I open it I find it empty again. Never had this happen before. Any thoughts?

bryan

If you're sharing the database, the global fields have to be set while its not shared then reshare the database.

Whoah. How have I never come across that before? I guess it makes sense since every user has their own copy of the global.

Thanks for the heads up,

Bryan

That tripped me up a lot too before I realized. If unsharing the db isn't convenient, a quick and dirty solution is to create a script that runs at startup and sets the field to a particular value.

It's hardly quick and dirty :

Yea, I thought about the scripting solution if I couldn't get to the bottom of the behavior. Again, it makes sense to me now that I really think about it. I typically develop off of the server as I imagine most do. By the time I share/host a database all the globals are set. In this case I was using a global as part of a relationship, particularly to only relate to author addresses in an address database.

It would be nice if there was a way to set globals .. ughhh ... globally while being shared. Even if that meant kicking everyone off like you had to do to change field definitions in FM5. No biggie, just would make administration that much easier.

Thanks again,

Bryan

For a constant value common to all users, you can also use an unstored calculation.

Comment, of course ... calculations. Rather than unstored however you can just use global storage for the calculation. This way you can change the calculation in define fields and the next time people log in it will change.

Thanks,

Bryan

You can change an unstored calculation in define fields just as well. Using your example, there's not much difference between the two. But if you also want to reference a varying parameter, such as current date, then a stored calculation will not work.

Quite right. It's my personal preference I guess.

My files are being hosted on a FM server. Is there a way to temporarily turn sharing off for other guests and then turn it back on after I reset the global field to the desired value?

I have been pulling the files off the server, modifying them on my local computer, and then reposting them back to the server. It's becoming quite a pain.

Why not put the values that you require in the globals into a 1 record table. This way you can set up the globals at the start of each session by way of set field steps in your startup script and also edit the record whie still being served, ready for the next startup

Phil