User Locks in Datafile

There is sometimes some confusion about the locks in Datafile and the effects they can have.

Essentially, each user should only be signed onto the system ONCE. The only legitimate reason for re-starting a user or for using the SLAVE sign-on to clear them from the system is if there has been a crash on the users machine or on the network generally.

Re-starting the user or clearing their locks using the SLAVE sign-on while they are in fact still processing is dangerous and often results in the corruption of data - leading to a need to restore files and thereby lose several manhours of work.

Sometimes users have felt that they need to sign onto the system twice - if they are running a report that takes a long time and need to put a sales order on quickly, for example, but there is in fact no need to do so.
There are two alternatives. Firstly, administrators may create a second, separate user-id for each person in the MASTER menu. Secondly, you can configure the Datafile multi-tasking options to allow certain program actions to be made while processing something else. See article 12 - Multi-Tasking in Datafile for more information.

Administrators can prevent users from re-starting themselves by disallowing the option in General Multi-User Options on the MASTER sign-on.