How to Manage Conflict Documents
Conflict documents are created when a document is opened and saved by more than one person at the same time. When this occurs, a secondary document, called a "conflict document," is created. The document is created either when the document is saved or when a local document is replicated to the server. There are three primary approaches that can be used to manage database conflict documents.
Monitor and correct conflicts as they occur
Have Lotus Notes merge replication conflicts
Implement document locking
When managing a large database, conflict documents can be hard to locate. To manage and quickly locate conflict documents, create a view that displays all conflicts in the database. Its a good idea to monitor and periodically clean up conflict documents in the database.
How It Works
Any time a conflict document is created, Domino adds a special field to the document. This variable is called $Conflict. To show all conflicts in the database, create a view and set the selection criteria to only display documents that contain the $Conflict field.
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ImplementationApproach 1Monitor Conflicts
The first approach is to monitor conflict documents in the database. As new conflict documents are created, you monitor conflicts and notify document authors so that the changes can be applied to the main document. This will ensure that the document changes are eventually integrated and applied to the database. To implement this solution, complete the following steps.
Step 1. | Create a view. |
Step 2. | In the properties dialog, give the view a unique namesuch as Conflicts. Switch to tab 2 and uncheck Show response documents in hierarchy. Close the properties dialog after these configuration parameters are set. |
Step 3. | Insert the following formula in the Selection Criteria section of the Programmers pane. This will ensure that only conflict documents are displayed in the view. SELECT @IsAvailable($Conflict) |
ImplementationApproach 2Merge Replication Conflicts
The second approach is to have Lotus Notes automatically merge replicated changes into a single document. Lotus Notes will automatically merge documents, provided that the fields modified are unique between the two documents. If the same field is modified between the local and server documents, a conflict document will still be generated. Otherwise, the changes will be merged into a single document. To implement this approach, complete the following steps.
Step 1. | Open the form in the Domino Designer client. |
Step 2. | Select the Design > Form Properties menu options. In the properties dialog, select the Merge replication conflicts option. |
ImplementationApproach 3Lock Documents
The third approach locks documents and disables the ability for a single document to be opened in edit mode by multiple users. Its important to note that this approach only works when implemented on the server. You must have "Manager" access to the database in the ACL to utilize this technique. To implement it, complete the following steps.
Step 1. | Select the File > Database > Access Control menu options. Switch to the Advanced tab and specify the Domino server to be used as the Admin Server. In many cases, this will be the same server that is used to host the database. Save and close the Access Control List window after this value has been specified. |
Step 2. | Open the database and select the File > Database > Properties menu options. Select the Allow document locking option on tab 1 of the database properties dialog. |
Tip
Review the Notes Designer help to learn more about the document locking feature. Be aware that some users will mostly encounter problems where documents stay locked. To counter this problem, create a hidden view for documents that contain $Writers and $WritersDate. Then create a scheduled agent to release the lock on these documents based on an established time, for example, for documents that remain in a locked status for longer than one, two, or three days.
Tip
Create a view icon column to indicate when the document is locked. You could also create a computed field on the form that indicates the document lock status at the time the document is opened.
