| Multi-user Development | Managing Roles | |
When a new Project is created using MS Access then Knowledge Builder will automatically create two default users – Admin and User. The system will also generate two Roles, each of which is assigned to their respective user. For Projects created using SQLServer, Oracle or Sybase then the sql scripts will have created just the Admin user and the System Administrator role. The Admin user is the System Administrator who oversees the Project, and configures Users and Roles. The User Management Console is only accessible by the Administrator.
From release 9.0 locking is carried out at the object level and is performed automatically by the system. When an object is opened for editing the icon in the explorer view is super-imposed with a padlock. If this is the current user then the padlock will be yellow:
If this is another user then the padlock will be red and the current user is only able to open the object in read-only mode until that object has been released:
Changes made in the object editors are saved to local cache, it is up to the user when to commit these changes back to the project database using the pull down menu 'File / Commit changes to Database'. The Admin user is not allowed to make changes to the development project and can only open the editors in read only mode. Once object edits have been committed to the database then other users can see these changes after they have received a refresh from the database (User Option setting - Automatic Refresh from Database). If the automatic refresh is switched off then a button appears at the bottom of the explorer view to manually request a refresh.
Changes made in the explorer view eg. adding an object, are automatically committed back to the database and therefore available to other users once they have recevied a refresh from the database.
Exclusive Lock
By default Knowledge Builder is set to lock at the object level when editing, if the user wishes to lock a whole knowledge module for their use then they can apply an exclusive lock. This is applied by right-clicking on the module and selecting the 'Apply Exclusive Lock' option.
The user who has requested the exclusive lock will see a green lock symbol by the module name in the explorer view.
Other users of the project will see a red lock symbol by the module name and also against all the objects in that module.
A locking report can be requested to determine who has exclusively locked the module.
The user who applied the exclusive lock can subsequently release the lock by right-clicking on the module and selecting the 'Release Exclusive Lock' option.
