Who's modifying this record?

[LaRetta]

If I receive an error that a record is being modified by another User (201 or 301 etc), is there a way that I can find out who that User is?

UPDATE: I mean ... FileMaker knows another User is modifying the record. And I would bet that FileMaker also knows WHO is modifying it. That's what I want - what FileMaker knows.

DOUBLE-UPDATE: I realize I can use the Modified By (auto-enter). But that will only set after the commit and not during the modification itself. After the commit, I could gain possession of the record myself. But sometimes Users modify and LEAVE their cursor in a record's field. And I think FileMaker knows exactly who is doing it, too!

Edited December 1, 2008 by Guest
Added double-update

[Lee Smith]

Shouldn't this question be in one of the Server Topics?

[LaRetta]

Actually, Lee, I do not think so; I did think this through before posting. Server knows the answer but cannot give it to us except via polling the calculation engine; whether we use it in script or calculation. So I think we need to look at the functions themselves. But I can find no function which will do the job; that is why I'm asking. :wink2:

[comment]

I don't know of any function that would return an account name other that your own. I think this is on purpose: strictly speaking, you are not supposed to know any account name other that your own. I know we all routinely write it down in ModifiedBy fields and other places, but perhaps the implications of unrestricted access to this information warrant a second thought - at least in some circumstances.

[LaRetta]

Thank you anyway, Michael. I was unable to find any ways of tricking this information out of FM. Yep, we can capture the information the minute a person commits the record; I was just hoping we could get the feedback during the lock, especially if one has the right privileges.

I want a Get ( ActiveRecordLockAccount) function.

[IdealData]

In my environment I allow users to discover the who has the record locked by running a simple script without error trapping.The dialog shows the user account name and privilege set.

I know you can't get this info any other way, but I don't see a problem in letting users know whom to contact.

[LaRetta]

WONDERFUL!! Thank you so much! :smile2:

[LaRetta]

Well, this helps. It confirms that FileMaker knows (in the moment) who possesses the record. But I was hoping to capture that information within a script itself. This would be used by script (when setting data and testing for record-lock). It is then possible (using various methods) to notify a User to commit their record so script can write to the record. Heck, it'd be cool to even commit the person for them and then put their cursor back where it was. Okay, okay, I'm getting out there a bit ...

But if we don't ponder these things, we'll never come up with answers. I think we could use something like SnagIt (from the command line) and, if we get record-lock, allow the dialog to pop up and then Send Event[] to capture the top-most dialog and parse out the Account Name. But how then to dismiss the dialog without a User? I'd prefer no dialog at all but just grab the parsed Account Name into a script variable. Maybe some plug-in company will help us out. C++ should be able to do it as well.

I remain hopeful that some day, someone will come up with an answer for us.

[comment]

Well, so much for my theory...

I still think it's bad security to let users know another user's account name, let alone their privilege set! This should be left entirely to the discretion of the developer.

The way it stands now, there is no way to prevent the leak on one hand, and no way to get this information to do something useful on the other hand. A lose-lose situation.

[Joe Luis]

Has anyone looked into this issue further? Any info would be fantastic!

[sicSRT8]

I could use this actually. Or an option to close the user's session via admin rights.

[macamaca]

Yes.

It would be good to at least be able to notify user A that user B wants to edit the record.

m.