Lock Work Items
When a shared work item is created for you, you can lock or unlock the work item to prevent others from opening it. A shared work item is created when a workflow assigns work items to more than one user in a single work item step.
By locking the work item, you can indicate that you have started working on it, and others should wait for you to complete or unlock the work item. This applies to scenarios when work items are assigned to a pool of users, all of whom cannot work on the task in parallel. When a work item is locked, a visual indicator
is displayed to the other users in their Inboxes. They are prevented from opening or submitting the work item.
If a work item is locked, other users can see the work item in the Inbox but cannot open it. An administrator, however, can lock, unlock, and relock the work item for any user. An administrator can see the work item in the Inbox, open it, and make changes to records within the work item even if it is locked by another user. However, such work items cannot be submitted.
Work item locking only applies to actionable work items, and has no impact on notification work items.
By default, work item locking is enabled. If the work item locking is enabled, the following options are displayed in the Inbox:
- Acquire Lock — Allows you to lock a work item.
- Release Lock — Allows you to release the lock on a work item.
- Relock — Allows you to renew an already existing lock. Lock expiration related data is renewed. Relock is displayed only if lock expiration method is relative.
This feature is highly configurable and you may see different actions depending on the configuration for your installation. If you do not enable this feature, the following actions are performed in the Inbox:
- Work item locks are released automatically when work items time out.
- Work item locks are acquired automatically when work item is opened.
- Users other than an administrator can lock or unlock the work items assigned to other users (applies to web services only).
- Locks are released automatically after a preconfigured time interval.
This documentation describes the work item locking features as experienced using the UI. For using web services for locking and unlocking the work items, refer to TIBCO MDM Customization.