Portal locking.....

[Matt Klein]

I am wondering if anyone knows a way around the following problem....I have found a way to avoid getting the "So-and-so is modifying this record" message when clicking into a portal while another user is also clicking on a record in the same portal. I did this by creating a separate record for each user.

The only remaining time I get the "....is modifying this record" is when someone is scrolling the portal, not even selecting a record in the portal, and another user tries to scroll the same portal.

It is very aggravating for myself and my users. Especially for me since I have them on totally different records, but dealing with the same portal.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

If the fields do not allow editing you will not have this as an issue. That may defeat the reason for having the portal of course. In some instances this problem can be addressed by having a user click into a portal row OTHER than the first one.

HTH

Old Advance Man

[Rigsby]

This is a big problem, and the solutions are radical – but if you can implement it, it might work! By the way – I’ve never tried this, so forgive me if it’s nonsense!

Firstly, each user needs their own layout! Hmmmmm – not nice, hard to set into practice, but might work. Then (even worse from a programming point of view) on each layout you need to use a different relationship, which in turn gives a different portal! Of course the break fields in each relationship are identical so the information being displayed will be identical in each portal on each layout! Now you should only get the error message if two users try to access the same record.

One step further, is to create a related database that records which layouts are in use and which are still free. This would mean one record for each layout in the main file. Then, when a user clicks on a button to go to the trick layout, a script sets the corresponding record in the related file to “active”, or if it is already active, tries the next layout and so on until it finds a layout not in use, or tells the user to try again later.

I always wanted to try this solution, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet! If it works let me know.

[Matt Klein]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rigsby:

This is a big problem, and the solutions are radical – but if you can implement it, it might work! By the way – I’ve never tried this, so forgive me if it’s nonsense!

Firstly, each user needs their own layout! Hmmmmm – not nice, hard to set into practice, but might work. Then (even worse from a programming point of view) on each layout you need to use a different relationship, which in turn gives a different portal! Of course the break fields in each relationship are identical so the information being displayed will be identical in each portal on each layout! Now you should only get the error message if two users try to access the same record.

One step further, is to create a related database that records which layouts are in use and which are still free. This would mean one record for each layout in the main file. Then, when a user clicks on a button to go to the trick layout, a script sets the corresponding record in the related file to “active”, or if it is already active, tries the next layout and so on until it finds a layout not in use, or tells the user to try again later.

I always wanted to try this solution, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet! If it works let me know.

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This sucks! I can understand getting the message when trying to access the same record, but not when just trying to scroll through the same portal. It keeps FileMaker just short of the best and it keeps me having to "band-aid" my solutions with lengthy, inefficient programming.

FileMaker, if you are listening, do something about this PLEASE!!!!

[Matt Klein]

OK, I tried the solution and it still didn't work. I used different layouts, different records, different relationships and even different fields in the relationships. If someone is scrolling in a portal it locks out other users.

It appears, Old Advanced Man, that your solution is the only one a this point. That being that if they click in a portal row, other than the first one, then try to scroll, it works. No lockout. The problem is getting the users to add this extra click. And god forbid they need to access the first record in the portal. Also, I have no fields in the portal that allow access into the field and the problem still exists. Old Advanced Man, is that what you mean by fields not allowing editing?