Document Collaboration - Locked Files

[takabanana]

Is "locked" files implemented in the current version of Collanos - so that one person can be editing a shared document while others only have read-only access?

If not, I saw a post saying the lock would have to happen after a person opens a file - so I would think it can go in this sequence:
1. User opens a document for editing
2. Collanos creates a lock file
3. Collanos communicates with other Collanos Team members, to see if any of them have a lock file on the same document as well.
4. If a lock file is found, then you compare the timestamp on them - the earliest timestamp gets the lock, and the other Collanos Team members lose the lock
5. At this point, only one copy of the document has the "lock" - while others who attempted can be notified that they lost the attempt at lock. 

I would think these steps would take, at most, a few seconds - so any losses (for people who attempted to get a lock) would be minimal.

[Franco Dal Molin]

Thanks for this feedback. This feature is not implemented yet. We will add such - or a similar - capability in the future, but as of now it's not scheduled in our release plan.

The main problems arising when considering the locking of files relate to our offline capability. With Collanos Workplace users are able to use their data while being offline, including making changes to files. The solution sequence you outlined would work in an always-on scenario, but is not manageable in an online/offline case. The only way to guarantee locking, would be to create a lock in the very beginning, when a new file is added to the workspace.

In the future we might add a feature to create "managed objects" that are assigned to one (and only one) user. Almost like a lock, this assignment could be passed on to other users in a controlled fashion. If you want to assign locks to files only later, you will never be able to guarantee a "full lock" across all online and offline users. Or, to put it differently, this would not be a real "lock" anymore, but more like a non-enforceable "I am working on this file" notification message. It could be used to let other online users know that you are working on this file (purely on informational level), but you would not be able to guarantee an exclusive lock extending to offline users.

We will do one or the other or even both variants. Or even a combination. For instance, it is thinkable to use a lock that works only when users ARE indeed online, but for all offline users it would immediately default to "read only".

Anyway, thanks again for your your suggestions and your "vote" for this planned feature. We will do a bit more research around this and put it in our release plan.