[dev] Re: Locking mechanism for shared Horde resources?

[Chuck Hagenbuch]

Quoting Kevin Myer <kevin_myer at iu13.org>:

> I looked and can't find one (which doesn't mean it doesn't exist) but 
> does Horde have any sort of locking function/class, for determining 
> whether someone can access a shared resource?

No, not currently. It was in docs/TODO at some point, I thought, but 
it's not there now. It'd be pretty easy to build on the DataTree 
system. (Like Shares or History or ...)

> Think Shared Notepad.  User A opens a note to add an additional 
> thought to it.
> User B decides they want to add something to it too and they open it up.
> Whoever saves last, gets their thought saved...

Yup. Wiki, too.

> If something like this was implemented, there are potential problems 
> with tying up a shared resource with a lock - browser crash, user 
> closes browser with resource open (i.e. quits browser but doesn't 
> logout of Horde).  But there are also potential problems if I'm 
> editing something that my secretary also happens to be editing and 
> her changes overwrite mine..
>
> Is this an isolated and mostly non-issue?

It honestly hasn't seemed to come up much - possibly because 
Share-based apps are only now going into wide production use. It's a 
valid issue, though, certainly. There are solutions for the problems 
you mentioned - have locks time out after 15 minutes, for example; when 
a user edits something they get a notification that they have this 
resource locked until XX time... etc.

-chuck

-- 
"But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy." - John 
Quincy Adams