About Record Locks

A record is locked when a user opens an item for updating or transitioning or begins editing a row in the Rich Editable Grid. Other users who attempt to access a locked record receive a message that the record is currently locked. A user who attempts to open a single item in multiple browser windows also receives a record-lock message. In this case, users can break their own locks, but they cannot break the locks of other users.

Record locking with a 30-minute time-out setting is enabled by default for all primary and auxiliary tables. You can modify these default settings on the Advanced tab when you edit a primary or auxiliary table in SBM System Administrator.

The following information applies to record locks:

• Users can view locked items and add notes and attachments to them, but they cannot edit items that are locked by another user.

• When record locks are broken, users receive an error message stating that the lock on the item was broken by either a time out or a process with a higher priority.

• Record locks are automatically released when an update or transition is completed, when the user cancels the transition or update, or when the specified time-out period expires. Locks are also released when users save or discard modified rows in the Rich Editable Grid.

  Note: If users modify items in the Editable Grid and then navigate away from it without saving or discarding their changes, the modified items remain locked until the time-out period expires or the locks are manually removed.

• The following processes have priority over record locks and will break them: database imports; and transition actions such as triggers, sub-tasks, and scripts. Orchestrations, SBM Web Services API (if breakLock is true in the TransitionItems call), and SBM API functions will also break record locks, except for the TSPrimaryItem::StartTransition and TSAuxiliaryItem::StartUpdate API methods.

• You can manually remove record locks on individual items from SBM Application Administrator. To prevent data loss, do this only when users cannot access items in the table for unexpected reasons, such as one user leaving a form open for an extended period.

• Users who have privileges to view System reports can run the Item Lock report, which provides a list of items that are locked by users for tables selected when running the report. The report displays the title of the locked item, the user holding the lock, and the amount of time remaining on the lock.