The Edit Lock feature prevents multiple Agents
from working on the same Issue at one time or Administrators from working on the same form in Form Designer at the same time.. If
enabled, when someone tries to access an Issue that another user is working
on, the user receives a message stating that the Issue is being edited
by another user.
Enable/Disable Edit Lock for Issues
To enable or disable the Edit Lock feature:
Select Administration
| Workspace | Edit Lock from the FootPrints
Toolbar.
To:
enable
the Edit Lock, select a time-out period from the drop-down list. This
is the amount of time an Issue or form remains locked if a user keeps the page
open. After
the time-out period elapses, the page is freed. The
options for this field range from 5 minutes to 55 minutes, in 5 minute
increments (5, 10, 15...) Options
are also available for 1,2, and 3 hours.
disable
Edit Lock, select Off from the drop-down. This
allows two users to work on the same Issue at the same time. This
does not cause a system error. Instead,
both edits are submitted and handled as though they had taken place serially,
e.g., if the first submitted edits changed the status to Pending
Approval and the second one submitted changed the status to Closed,
the Closed
status would be current. If both users append a Description,
both Descriptions
are saved.
Enter your password
and click Save at
the bottom of the screen to submit the change.
Using Edit Lock
To lock an Issue,
an Agent must access the Edit function for that Issue, either from
the Homepage or the Details page of the Issue. Using
the Takefunction also locks the Issue. Viewing
the Details of an Issue does not lock the Issue. Only editing it locks
the Issue.
When other users
try to access a locked Issue, they receive a message stating that the
Issue is being edited by another user and to try back later.
An Issue, once locked,
remains locked until:
The Agent submits
the edit by clicking Save
on the Edit
Issue page.
Another user tries
to access the Issue (via Edit or Take),
and the first Agent has had the Issue open for longer than the time-out
period selected above.
The Administrator
frees the lock (see below).
Once unlocked by one of these methods, the
Issue is free for editing by other users.
If a user keeps an
Issue up for editing past the time out period and another user starts
editing the Issue, when they try to submit their changes, they receive
the message "Issue 123 is currently being edited by another user,
and is not available". Any
changes they made to the Issue are lost. It
is important to keep the Edit Lock time-out interval long enough to prevent
this from happening often. The
recommended time-out period is 30 minutes or more.
The Edit Lock feature
does not apply to Customer Edit users or to email updates to Issues.
Unlocking Issues
It may sometimes be necessary to manually unlock an Issue.
For example,
a user may take an Issue for editing and then go to lunch. Rather
than waiting for the time-out period, the administrator can unlock the
Issue manually.
All currently locked Issues are listed on the Edit Lock Administration page, as in the following example:
Issue
35958 is being edited by Nikki Singh who began the edit on 05-06-2003
at 11:02:03
Issue
4562 is being edited by Pedro Gomez who began the edit on 05-06-2003 at
10:51:11
Issue
1237 is being edited by Jill Smith who began the edit on 05-06-2003 at
10:48:07
To unlock an Issue:
Check the box next
to the Issue on the Edit Lock Administration page.
Click Save. The Issue is
unlocked.
Caution
Any user who is currently editing the Issue has the potential
of losing their modifications. Only use this feature when necessary.
Note
This feature is also useful for seeing what different users
are working on at any given time.
Edit Lock for Form Designer
Form Designer Edit Lock displays whether Form Designer is locked for the current workspace and, if it is locked, displays who is using it.