Sharing Data Using FileMaker Server - FileMaker Pro 13: The Missing Manual - page 978

the same time. So to understand what problems you might run into, take another look at the
topic of record locking.
Reviewing Record Locking
Back in Chapter 1 , you learned about record locking by trying to edit the same record in two
different windows. When you start editing a record, FileMaker locks it, so you (or anyone
else) can't change it in another window until you commit it in the first one. When several
people share the same database, record locking is a constant concern. Once anyone starts
editing a record, nobody else can edit it. So if Joan types a few lines in the Notes field, then
heads off to lunch without clicking out of the record first, she keeps it locked from everyone
else until she returns.
While record locking may be a minor annoyance to the user, it can be a real problem for the
database developer. If you've designed all your scripts with the mistaken notion that you can
always edit any record you want, then you'll get an unpleasant surprise the first time a script
tries to modify a locked record. Your script will throw an error, but the results of the error
will vary, depending on what your script is supposed to do. Some record locking errors can
stop your script cold, while it's partway through a process. Or if the script was looping
through a set of records, it might skip any that are locked, but process the rest normally. But
unless the script marks records, you won't know which ones got skipped.
Sometimes a process just won't work for multiple users. For example, say two people flag a
set of records and then run a script that finds all flagged records and loops through them. The
script will conflate the two sets of records, which probably isn't what you intended. You
could fix this problem by making each person's flag unique, say by entering the person's ac-
count name in the flag field. The script could then find just that person's flagged records for
processing. But this solution only works if there's no chance that any two people might need
to flag the same record at the same time. Or, to avoid the issue altogether, you could make it
so only one person can use certain scripts and use privilege sets to keep everyone else away
from them. See the box on Developing on Shared Files to learn about precautions you should
take if you do development tasks on shared databases.
FileMaker Network Sharing
If you already have a network in your office, and a few copies of FileMaker, then you're
ready to share your database with FileMaker Network Sharing . First, put all your databases
on one computer. Then open those files, change a few settings in each one, and call that com-
puter the host . Each computer that opens those files is called a guest , since it opens the same
databases that are on the host. Up to five guests can connect to one host.