There are three main types of variables in WebFOCUS:

• System. These are set and managed by WebFOCUS and available to all users at all times.
• Global. These are set by the user or application and can be available to a user or all users for the duration of their session, depending on how they are made available, as explained below.
• Local. These are set by the user or application and available locally to the procedure from which it is set.

The following guidelines can be used to leverage WebFOCUS variables:

• Centralize global variables used by all metadata and users in the Reporting Server global profile, edasprof.prf.
• Centralize global variables that are metadata specific in the Master File profile.
• Variables can be passed between procedures, as follows.
  • Global variables are available to all procedures.
  • Local variables can be passed between procedures, using:
    • EX {procedure} syntax, where you can control which local variables can be passed to the procedure.
    • -INCLUDE {procedure} syntax, where all local variables are passed to the procedure.