Who this is for. Site builders and team leads whose authors overwrite each other's changes, and developers whose scripts write records that people may have open. After this page you can choose the right mode, and tell a configuration problem from a working-practice one.
The four modes
The setting is "Edit locks" (Globals.admin.editLocks). When an author opens a record to edit it, the admin takes a lock on it for that user. What happens when a second author opens the same record depends on the mode:
| Option | Key | A second author opens the record |
|---|---|---|
| Disabled | disabled | No lock is taken; the feature is off. |
| Display editing user; do not lock (the default) | display | The admin shows who else is editing. The second author gets a lock too, and both can save. |
| Disable edit button; do not prevent direct access | disableButton | The admin hides the edit button. Nothing on the server enforces it: an author who reaches the edit screen directly gets a lock and can save. |
| Strict: Forbid parallel record editing | strict | No lock is given while another lock exists. The admin reports who holds it and offers no edit. |
In every mode but Disabled, reopening a record you already hold renews your lock instead of adding a second one.
Scripts and integrations ignore locks
The setting's help text says "Edit locks to not affect API requests", and that holds in every mode, Strict included. A script or integration writing through the API can overwrite a record that an author has open in the admin.
How a lock is released
- Saving releases your own lock.
- While the edit screen stays open, the admin renews the lock periodically.
- A lock that is not renewed for 60 seconds expires. Expired locks are swept away whenever locks are next looked up, so closing the tab without saving frees the record within about a minute; nothing has to be released by hand.
- In Strict mode only, the admin also offers to force the release. It removes every lock on the record, whoever holds it.
Enforce edit locks
A second setting, "Enforce edit locks" (Globals.admin.enforceLocks), has help text that reads "users cannot save changes when they do not have an active lock on the record." What an editor can do when another user holds the lock follows the Edit locks mode above: in Strict, a second author cannot take a lock while the first is active, so there is no edit screen to save from; in Display or Disable edit button, the second author takes a lock of their own and can save alongside the first, whatever Enforce edit locks is set to.