TS 5.0 Locking

I have a branch that multiple authors (who sit near each other) want to modify the same files. I would like to turn all locking off on a specific branch (dangerous I know) or at least allow different authors in the same workarea to modify each other's work.

I know there is a danger of clobbering each other's work.

I'm considering writing a script to run within a repeating work flow to either unlock the files or submit them. I don't really need history on these files so I would rather unlock than submit them.

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Comments

sajiddc

I am sorry but your post was not clear. Could you please re-post?

mogoo

This is kind of a lame workaround, but authors CAN unlock if they log in with the WebDesk interface option checked. I know it's not ideal, but if it's not too confusing for your authors, it might be an easy solution.
maureen

Adam Stoller

Do the users share a workarea - or are they using separate workareas?

If they share a workarea, the only thing that might prevent them from being able to edit the same file (with your already noted caveats about the dangers of doing so) would be the permissions on the files.

In Windows, I don't believe this would be too much of a problem. On Unix, they would probably all have to have the same primary group and/or relaxed umasks.

If you're trying to do it within separate workares - the comment about using WebDesk applies (I believe) only to the person who holds the lock. I.e. an "Author" who holds the lock on a file can unlock it.

Alternatively, you could create a completely within-workarea workflow process that uses externaltask scripts to unlock the files ... but this could get more complex than it appears at first glance (and is extremely difficult to design without having a complete understanding of the working environment ... If you want to pursue this possibility, I strongly suggest you contact your Interwoven Consulting representative)

--fish
(Interwoven, Curriculum Development)

Bowker

All the users are in one workarea. All the files are templated and if the DCR is locked you can't save it to regenerate the HTML document.

This is a unique site that is for development of presentation CDs not for an actual web site. Therefore staging is just a convient place to archive completed work, not to deploy to a web site somewhere.

Our solution is to give them a workflow to submit selected files (and automatically attach the associated DCRs). That works fine, until a files is not modified, just locked. Then the submit doesn't do anything. My next step is to add an external task that will unlock all the files still locked in the workflow after submission.

If only we had a few more hours in a day.