General topics: managing record locks

Managing record locks

When a user starts editing a record, Collections applies a so-called record lock. This prevents colleagues from editing the same record simultaneously: as long as there is a lock on a record, others can only view that record, not edit it. If another user still tries to edit a locked record, Collections will prohibit this. Collections will only release a record when the user editing the record leaves edit mode by saving or by closing the record unsaved.

In normal operation, Collections cleans up a record lock as soon as a user stops editing the record, but if during editing of a record a malfunction in your system occurs (e.g. because of a crash), it is possible that the record lock is not removed, which makes it impossible for anyone to edit that record again (because it is still locked), except for the person editing the record at the time of the crash.

If you can open a record in display mode, but you cannot edit or remove it while no-one else is editing the record and you have write or full access to it, this is probably because the record is still locked. You may receive an error 34 or 85, and/or a message stating that the record is in use or that no record lock can be applied. The record lock must then first be removed before you can edit or delete the record.

In such cases, you can use the Record lock manager to check which records are still locked, and remove the record locks that are no longer applicable. This functionality is a standard part of Axiell Designer. .

The Record lock manager

With the Record lock manager tool you can view and remove record locks. Start it from Axiell Designer by choosing Tools > Record lock manager in the menu or by clicking the button for it in the main Axiell Designer window:

First select the \data subfolder of your Collections application folder as the working folder for this tool.

The Record lock manager then provides a real-time overview of all current locks in all database tables in that folder: any record opened or closed in your Collections applications is immediately reflected in the locks overview.

The date a lock was created, the record number, and by whom, are displayed in the overview to help you determine if a lock is obsolete. And locks that are older than 15 minutes turn red. If the list is long, you may want to sort it by clicking the appropriate column header.
In the status bar of this tool window the most recent "sample" time is displayed (the time at which this tool actively searched for locks; but whenever a lock is created, this data is immediately transferred to the record lock manager and displayed, so the list is updated in real-time.

3.	Before removing any faulty locks you may want to document all currently present locks. Click the View a record lock list button to generate this documentation. You can print this documentation and/or save it as an XML file.

Finally, select a lock, or more than one by Shift- or Ctrl-clicking, and remove them by clicking the Delete selected record lock(s) button, but only if you are sure that no-one is currently editing those records!

You may also delete all record locks at once by choosing Edit > Delete all locks or by clicking the button for it.