Locking users out of projects

You can lock users out of projects that are currently mounted on the Enterprise server if you wish. When users are locked out of a project, they cannot edit or save the project, and no new users can access the project. You may find this useful if you want to make changes to a project while being sure that no other user is able to change things in the project at the same time.

Before you lock a project, you can specify that certain users maintain their access rights to the project during the lockout period. You do this by selecting the users that you want to be able to access the project during the lockout in the Lockout Settings dialog. Only the project's top-level user can access this dialog and specify the users that are excluded from the lockout. When you lock a project in order to allow one user to make a change to the project, remember to exclude that user from the lockout before you lock the project.

While a lockout is in force, the project's top-level user can access this dialog at any point and change the users who have access to the project during the lockout: you can grant access to users that are currently locked out and remove access from users that currently have access. If you grant access to a user that is currently locked out of a project while the project is locked, the user must log out of the project and log back in again to be able to use the project.

You can only lock and unlock server-mounted projects, and you can only lock users that have been defined in Asta Powerproject (project-level users) out of projects; you cannot lock users that have been defined in Server Admin (server-level users) out of projects.

You cannot lock users out of projects if you are using Asta Powerproject standalone or Asta Powerproject SaaS.

To lock users out of a project:

  1. Ensure that the project is mounted. Refer to Server Admin Help for details of how to mount projects.
  2. Open the project in Asta Powerproject as the top-level user.
  3. Click the File tab, click Properties, then click Lockout Settings. The Lockout Settings dialog appears. It displays a tree control of all the project's users.
  4. Select the check box next to the user(s) that you want to exclude from the lockout and click OK.
  5. Enter lockproject <runtime project ID> at the Enterprise server command prompt. All users that currently have the project open receive a message informing them that they have been locked out of the project. If they try to edit or save the project while it is locked, they will receive a further error message.

    If any users have unsaved changes in the project when you attempt to lock it at the command prompt, the lockout fails and you receive a message telling you which users have unsaved changes. Contact these users, ask them to save their changes, then attempt to lock the project again.
  6. When you have carried out your edits to the project, you can unlock it. To do this, enter unlockproject <runtime project ID> at the Enterprise server command prompt. All users that currently have the project open receive a message informing them that the project is now unlocked and that they can continue their work.