How come when

http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php/A_little_about_Filemaker_Globals

says

Each user gets a separate, private set of global fields. Global fields will not retain their values after shutdown. Many Filemaker Pro newcomers are puzzled when they reach a point where they begin to try out their database(s) with multiple users. They discover that information contained in global fields is not correct when they sign in again after quitting Filemaker Pro. This is because there is one master set of Globals contained in the actual file. The information contained in these fields is that which was placed there by the person who developed the database(s) or who last accessed it as a single user. When that file is shared so that other users can access it, whether by just turning on sharing in Filemaker Pro, or by serving the files with Filemaker server, each user gets a fresh set of private global fields that are loaded on startup with whatever information was originally contained in the master set before the file was shared. This means that vital information that is different for each user cannot be stored in a global field. The only way to change the information contained in the master set of Globals is to open the database(s) as a single user (not by accessing them through Filemaker server), and then change the information in the global fields.

That in my project where I have a number of global fields in use, and the FM file shared from a host to one user, whenever the user changes the contents of a global field it is changed on the host's screen immediately? Have I misinterpreted the above?

host's screen immediately?

In peer2peer'ing?? Could it be that the declaration not really is global?

--sd

The field is set as a global field in the data schema. As far as the networking side goes, we're just sharing the DB from one user to another.

Is the host consistent? IOW, is the same box being used as the host everyday ( ie opens the file up first everyday before anyone else)

The same box is the host all the time. It's very rarely switched off but it is always the host.

Could your post a copy of your file? Even in a peer to peer environment, if it is a global field, then the global field value should remain what it was at the time that it started being a host.

Hi John,

Thanks for the offer but afraid I can't post a copy of the file: it's commercial work and the client wants to own it outright.

Ultimately this doesn't matter to me now on a practical level as I've gone through the project and taken out all the global fields; I just wanted to know what had gone wrong.

All we had was a layout with one global field on it. Whenever that was committed by the "slave", it would appear on the host's screen. Similarly, if the slave was editing the field the host couldn't edit it, and vice versa.

Are you certain that this was a global type field? This doesn't seem like a global field but rather much more like a non-global field as those would be the characteristics...