Managing Locked Objects

In the Portal Content Studio, administrators can perform various actions on portal objects. A locking mechanism prevents multiple administrators from performing these actions on the same object simultaneously.

You automatically lock an object by opening it in an object editor, such as the Page editor, or Role editor. You can only edit an object if it is not locked at the same time by another user. If you try to open an object that is locked, the object opens in the object editor in read-only mode - you cannot edit the object and the Edit Mode button is activated. You also receive a system message with the user ID of the user currently locking the object.

If you have opened a locked object, you can take over the object for editing, even if it is locked by another user. You can do this by choosing the Edit Mode button provided in every object editor that supports object locking. When the lock protection span of the other user expires, the read-only status of the object is canceled automatically and you can edit the object. Your system administrator can also unlock objects that you need to edit.

System administrators can configure the period of time during which an object is available for a user (lock protection span), before another user can take over the object. The system extends this time span whenever you refresh an object. Objects are refreshed when you access the server, for example, when an object is saved, when the screen is refreshed, or when you create a new folder in a role or workset.

If you do not work on an object for a long time and your lock protection span expires, or if an administrator unlocks an object that you were working on, you get a system message and cannot make changes to the object.

Using the object locking mechanism system administrators can:

• View a list of locked objects, see which users are locking which object, and unlock locked objects

  For more information, see Unlocking Objects .

• Set the duration for which objects are locked

  For more information, see Setting the Time Span for Object Locking .

• Set up the system so that users can unlock their own locked entries

  For more information, see Enabling Users to Unlock their Own Objects .