drop down list without a corresponding database field

[Paul Doherty]

I am new to filemaker but enjoying it more than I did Ms Access

I took the Invoices "Starter Solution" that comes filemaker 12 as the basis of my database design. I want to have many people sign in and look at the items I am selling using IWS (Instant Web publishing). The starter solution invoices database makes use of global fields in the database for selecting say UNPAID invoices. How can I make a drop down list that is not connected to a field in the database? Ideally I would like to add a variable to the screen called say

$FilterPaymentStatus

when a user clicks on the field. He should see a pop up list

Paid

UnPaid

DepositPaid

.....

I would then add a script trigger to show all the Invoices matching that selected status. But I have not been able to add a pop up list to a variable in layout design mode

I don't want to create a user for each guest. I only want one guest account. Unless there is a way to create "throw away" guest records. There will be many guests all with READ only access.

Is there another way forward?

I did read many post on these forum but not all of the posts! !!!! Thanks for reading.

[comment]

I am not sure where your difficulty lies. Users can input data only into fields, not variables. You can use a global field to get the user's choice - contrary to what may be implied by the name, each user will have their own selected value until the end of the session.

[Paul Doherty]

wait now I have read something on the forums. If a field in the database in declared with global storage and two people on two different machines login via IWS (instant web publishing). Will filemaker create two separate instances of that variable or will the two users share the same global variable?

I am not sure where your difficulty lies. Users can input data only into fields, not variables. You can use a global field to get the user's choice - contrary to what may be implied by the name, each user will have their own selected value until the end of the session.

ic thanks even if they are both logged in as Guest??

[comment]

Yes.

[Paul Doherty]

Ups..... I was testing using TWO tabs on a browser on one machine and could see the variables change in one tab when I changed them in the other. I assumed from this that the variable was global to all users....but you are tell me that they are not.

Thanks a lot for your replies.

I must find a good manual/book!

[comment]

I don't think you can be two users on the same machine, using the same browser.

[Paul Doherty]

I don't think you can be two users on the same machine, using the same browser.

Yes true. Many thanks again.