Record Locking

[Jose Lerebours]

On 4/19/21 11:12 AM, Nancy Palmquist via Filepro-list wrote:
> Here are my responses.  Most of these things happen and it depends on 
> the kind of database and users on your system so I can not say any are 
> more likely than others.
>
> On 4/12/2021 8:45 PM, Jose Lerebours via Filepro-list wrote:
>> What do you attribute your record locking issues most often to
>>
>> A. Two or more users trying to update the same record
> This depends on the type of data and the construction of the 
> database.  I would see this more often on databases where 2 users had 
> to access the same customer or item in the nature of the data entry.  
> Not so much when people are doing orders or adding inventory or 
> something where the jobs of the people are focused on one category of 
> work.
>> B. Running a report while a user is in update mode
> I would say this is the most common.  But I would make 2 observations, 
> I use -u when the report is not required to update records as it 
> passes.  But I do not use -u when that is necessary, so the report 
> should wait for the user to finish what they are doing before continuing.
> I wish filepro had a better way of handling this, than just waiting.  
> It can be very confusing for the users.
>
>> C. Rebuilding indexes  while user is in update mode
> Scary bad, I try to rebuild things off work hours, if they need that 
> kind of attention.
>
>> D. User closed connection leaving a lock file behind
> Lock file is different than a record lock.  This is somewhat common 
> and can be annoying, but it is also bad to just do an unlock without 
> checking to see if two functions will collide.
>
>> E. Lookup processing that locks but does not release record
> I see this often on Windows Server versions and the only way to 
> release this is to reboot windows.  On a project where the data entry 
> is done from a dummy file, it is obvious when locks are stuck that it 
> came from lookups.  I am of the opinion that filepro is too fast for 
> Windows Server systems.  I will often have to put in sleep commands to 
> give Windows time to update data and remove record locks before I 
> continue.  It is a shame but it saves quite a bit of problems in the 
> long run.
>
> I have seen invoice numbers that need to be generated sequentially, 
> and when 2 users are pulling numbers, it will get duplicates even when 
> the record is opened with a lock and written when updated to release 
> the locks.  Somehow both users are able to get the same number.  My 
> conclusion is that the lock was not seen by the second user, who was 
> able to access the record before the lock was applied.  Even though 
> the lock command was sent before the data was pulled.  I had to invent 
> a workaround for this to insure it never happened, but it should have 
> worked without that being necessary. 

Very informative Nancy - Thank you for taking the time to respond.


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