Data Lockout - C'mon CommitCRM, sort it out.

Try this,
Go to ANY account, edit it, (I edited the customer address field)
do NOT save.
Now, lock your session. (It is a realistic scenario, probably not common but highly possible)

Try to edit that account from ANY other machine as ANY other user.

You can't..!

You also have no idea who/where the account is locked.

If the person who locked the session does NOT unlock the session, they the data they added is lost and you cannot access the record from the other machine (until you trash he locked session) losing the data and possible data corruption.

I love CommitCRM, I really do but it is so frustrating that 'bug fixes' have to be 'suggested' and only get fixed if 'voted for' by other customers.

Is there any way to avoid this?

danoli, we believe that this matter has been discussed in your other thread... Anyway -

The 'Lock' option does exactly what it is meant to - lock the session. It does not save anything nor it was meant to do so and delay the lock progress with asking the users questions that might pop during different Save operations.

It does a quick lock and that's it.

Thanks for asking.

I do not recall you responding to this question in the other thread hence the reason I started a new thread.

I agree, the lock session does just that, but unfortunately if the locked session has unsaved data, lock session actually becomes 'Lock the System' which is not good in a busy workshop, and distances CRM from being a stable multi user system.

It is very bad practice in any software to leave a machine with unsaved data, it is just asking for trouble. It is one of the first things taught in basic computing skills, that is to ensure your work is saved regularly. Problem is, not only does CommitCRM allow unsaved data to sit on a desktop indefinitely in an unsaved state, it then allows the session to be locked so the data is inaccessible. VERY RISKY.

I think it would be an extremely good idea to have the system prompt the user if there is unsaved data when they try to lock the session and disallowing the session lock.

Maybe by way of a setting in the system to 'Allow Lock Session with unsaved data' to allow those who prefer to force this on?

Well an easy way, under the employee setup section, would be to add a : Logout after xxx minutes of inactivity. So if this is a concern, the user would be logged out (Possibly loosing any unsaved data), but it would be a clean exit, and free up the licence for another tech. For the non-SQL product, it would also ensure a good backup as all open files would be closed. Another option to consider is adding the feature to force the logoff of one or more users, manually or at a predetermined time. (You REALLY need these features for users with 10 or more employees)

Thanks for your suggestions @racassel. We also consider supporting a situation where another user will be able to shutdown a locked RangerMSP client session with the option to save unsaved data.

+1 to that.