Record locking

[Mike Schwartz-PC Support & Services]

> 2. I have some unique requirements at this client's site and that is to
> allow
> them to enter an order # instead of using the "next available order #".
> Not the
> best of situations, however they are paying the bills and I have to
> accommodate
> their requirements.  This makes it necessary for me to check the value.
> In most
> cases, a manually entered order # will be below 1000.  It will be entered,
> processed and then deleted.  These are orders that they don't want in
> their
> sales history, but do appear in their accounting.

	I have a very similar situation at a manufacturer.  The first order
number I ever issued was 10,000, and I allow them to hand enter any order
number under that.  

	However I only have to check for duplicates if they have hand
entered any number, or attempted to change the number I automatically
assigned.  There isn't any need to check my automatically generated numbers,
because I know there couldn't possibly be any duplicates.

	Hand entering numbers has only caused them a problem once, and that
is where the sales rep (actually, the boss, himself) started to hnd enter an
order on one terminal, then left it in the middle of the job, then later
attempted to reenter the order at another terminal.  Somebody else pressed
esc-esc on the first terminal after he completed the data entry at the
second terminal, and they ended up with two similar orders with identical
order numbers.  I wrote a little patch that logs any attempts to issue a
number, so that this can't happen again.  

Thanks,

*** Mike Schwartz ***
*** PC Support & Services, Appleton, WI ***