Document Check-Out/-In

To prevent multiple users from editing the same document at once, users can check out a document and thus lock it for other users.

This functionality is handled by a plug-in, see CRM.launcher(Enterprise).

Documents are checked out using the D_Document_Edit menu action (in M_Documents for D1 and D2 and in M_ExpandLinked_Delete for D3 records), see M_Documents.

The application used for opening documents is determined by the Edit association of the file type (defined in the registry).

To display a list of currently checked out documents:

  • Users click Collaboration > Checked Out Documents (ID_NET_CHECKEDOUT_DOCUMENTS_MY), which lists the documents checked out by the current user.
  • Administrators click Administration > Manage Checked Out Documents (ID_NET_CHECKEDOUT_DOCUMENTS_ALL), which lists all currently checked out documents of all users.

    In both cases the result list displays the Process Tracking records (T3) that have been created on checking out documents (T3.Documents and T3.Documents.Admin).

  • In addition, the navigation pane item (Checked Out Documents) is displayed as long as at least one document is checked out. (The navigation pane item and popup is controlled by the plug-in and can not be customized.) The popup lists the documents checked out by the current user in a popup. When a new session is started, a system message containing a link to ID_NET_CHECKEDOUT_DOCUMENTS_MY is displayed instead of the Checked Out Documents menu item.

A document can be checked in/a check out can be undone as follows:

  • upon closing the application in which the document is opened.
  • selecting Upload & Check-In (A_Document_CheckIn) or Undo Check Out (D_UndoCheckout) from the context menu (M_Documents_Edited) in the popup,see M_Documents_Edited.
  • selecting Undo Check Out (D_UndoCheckout) from the context menus for D1, D2, D3 and from the checked out documents lists.
  • upon logging out and selecting the option Continue logout and undo check out.

The administrator can undo the check out for all checked out documents. The respective user is informed by a message.

The Document.AutoUpload Web Configuration parameter defines whether users are prompted for automatically uploading a non-MS Office document (e.g. PDF, TXT etc.) after editing or need to manually upload such documents, see Document.AutoUpload.