{"id":12166,"date":"2020-11-03T17:57:38","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T17:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/?p=12166"},"modified":"2024-11-26T08:09:16","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T08:09:16","slug":"record-locking-you-cannot-use-this-record-until-filemaker-user-is-finished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/record-locking-you-cannot-use-this-record-until-filemaker-user-is-finished\/","title":{"rendered":"Record Locking: You Cannot Use this Record Until (FileMaker User) is Finished"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"record<\/figure>

What is record locking? Why did my dashboard break?<\/h3>

While working, have you ever been thwarted by a FileMaker dialog that reads:<\/p>

\u201cDavid Weiner (David Weiner)\u201d is modifying this record.  You cannot use this record until \u201cDavid Weiner (David Weiner)\u201d is finished.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>

Why can\u2019t I use this record until someone is finished?<\/p>

This is caused by a challenge that all database systems face called conflict resolution.<\/em> What happens when two people in different places simultaneously edit the same record? Which edits win? What if I have the most recent information about something, but someone else started editing after me?<\/p>

Every database system has a method for handling this, and FileMaker is no exception. FileMaker addresses this dispute by instituting a \u201clock\u201d on the record. As soon as I put my cursor in a record and begin typing, FileMaker \u201clocks\u201d the record on my behalf. Other users can\u2019t edit the record until I\u2019ve committed or reverted my changes. This YouTube video<\/a> does a great job of explaining FileMaker\u2019s record locking. This blog post specifically details the hazards and benefits of FileMaker record locking.<\/p>

Hazards of Record Locking<\/h3>

If your system has a dashboard-style layout that uses a table full of global fields, multiple people can edit those values simultaneously. However, as soon as you add a non-global field to that table, the record becomes locked when anyone edits fields on the dashboard, even global fields. It can be puzzling for users when a dashboard suddenly stops working due to record locking.<\/p>

If you\u2019re trying to edit schema in a table while another user has locked a record in that table, you will be prevented from saving your changes until the lock is released. This can occur frequently in a busy system with many users, and is annoying at best and halting at worst.<\/p>

A problem occurs when a user\u2019s cursor is in a record they\u2019ve locked and they walk away from their computer. The locked record will be totally uneditable while they\u2019re gone. A user with administrative credentials can kick them out of the database by using the admin console. This is annoying at best and halting at worst.<\/p>

Benefits of Record Locking<\/h3>

First and foremost, record locking ensures data integrity by guaranteeing that the data you\u2019re working with is the most current. In FileMaker, data is always \u201clive,\u201d meaning that users see updates immediately. If you are in New York editing a record, and I\u2019m in Los Angeles looking at the same record, as soon as you hit \u201center\u201d or move out of the record, those edits are reflected on my screen immediately. While you are editing fields in that record, I am able to see the last saved version, but I\u2019m not able to make any changes to that record while you\u2019re editing. I also can\u2019t see what you\u2019re editing until the record is committed due to record locking.<\/p>

This benefit is extremely useful for multi-user environments. In FileMaker, there\u2019s never a need<\/em> to manually resolve conflicts between users, because there\u2019s no way for two users to make simultaneous and conflicting edits to a database record. Once a user is finished making changes, the next user can make changes. There\u2019s an argument to be made that perhaps FileMaker could allow field-level<\/em> locking instead of record-level<\/em> locking, which would allow people to edit portions<\/em> of a record without conflicting, but there may be technical or practical challenges involved that currently put this solution out of reach.<\/p>

Conclusion<\/h3>

Record locking provides instant, accurate data for multi-user environments. While the message \u201cYou cannot use this record until \u201cUser (User)\u201d is finished<\/strong>\u201d can be frustrating, the benefits of record locking outweigh the hazards.<\/p>

If you have further questions about record locking, feel free to contact us<\/a>!<\/p>

*This article was originally written for AppWorks, which has since joined Direct Impact Solutions. This article is intended for informative purposes only. To the best of our knowledge, this information is accurate as of the date of publication.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is record locking? Why did my dashboard break? While working, have you ever been thwarted by a FileMaker dialog that reads: \u201cDavid Weiner (David Weiner)\u201d is modifying this record.  You cannot use this record until \u201cDavid Weiner (David Weiner)\u201d is finished. Why can\u2019t I use this record until someone is finished? This is caused …<\/p>\n

Record Locking: You Cannot Use this Record Until (FileMaker User) is Finished<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":12175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[260,259,39,257],"class_list":["post-12166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-low-code","tag-conflict-resolution","tag-data-integrity","tag-filemaker","tag-record-locking"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Record-Locking.jpg",2535,1183,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Record-Locking-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Record-Locking-300x140.jpg",300,140,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Record-Locking-768x358.jpg",768,358,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Record-Locking-1024x478.jpg",1024,478,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Record-Locking-1536x717.jpg",1536,717,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Record-Locking-2048x956.jpg",2048,956,true],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Record-Locking-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Record-Locking-600x280.jpg",600,280,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Record-Locking-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"David Weiner","author_link":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/author\/david-weiner\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"What is record locking? Why did my dashboard break? While working, have you ever been thwarted by a FileMaker dialog that reads: \u201cDavid Weiner (David Weiner)\u201d is modifying this record.  You cannot use this record until \u201cDavid Weiner (David Weiner)\u201d is finished. Why can\u2019t I use this record until someone is finished? This is caused…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12166"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19311,"href":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12166\/revisions\/19311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}