Issue Edit Lock

The Issue Edit Lock feature prevents multiple Agents from working on the same Issue at one 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

To enable or disable the Edit Lock feature:

1. Select Administration | Project | Issue Edit Lock from the FootPrints Toolbar.
2. To:
3. enable the Edit Lock, select a time-out period from the drop-down list.  This is the amount of time an Issue 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.
4. 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.

3. Enter your password and click GO at the bottom of the screen to submit the change.

Using Edit Lock

• To lock an Issue, and Agent must access the Edit function for that Issue, either from the Homepage or the Details page of the Issue.  Using the Take function 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 GO 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 Issue 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:

1. Check the box next to the Issue on the Issue Edit Lock Administration page.
2. Click GO. 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.