Locking a file/records at certain time

[ren]

Hi everyone,

Does FM Pro 7 allow us to lock the file at a specified time?

For example: there are 2 users (A and : who have access to FM Pro 7 files that are stored in a server. User A enters some data and at the same time user B wants to enter some data to the same file too. What should I do to avoid conflict between user A and B? And or what should I do to make sure that an update on one file by user A will be reflected on user B's file too?

Any ideas anyone? Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Ren

[stanley]

Ren:

First off, it sounds like you are allowing users to access FileMaker files via OS-level file sharing. This is a very bad idea. The way to share FileMaker data among a group is to have FileMaker (or, even better, FileMaker Server) running on one machine on the network, with the databases open (and in the case of FMP, with . Other FileMaker users can then access the files via that machine's FileMaker, with FileMaker Network Sharing turned on. Make sure that your users access the files via "Open Remote...", or in the Open dialog, via the "Hosts" button. This is all covered in the FMP manual, in Chapter 4.

To answer your actual question, FileMaker automatically locks records that are being modified; when one user is modifying a record, other users can see it in read-only mode, and cannot make changes until the first user has exited the record.

Using FM Server, or when sharing via FMP, all records are present in real-time, and all changes are reflected pretty much immediately.

-Stanley