Check-in/Check-out of materials

Overview

In the event that two people are editing the same article or newsletter at once, it could result in weird behavior and potentially lost work. This system of “locking” content so only one person can edit them at a time prevents that problem.

This behavior has been applied to all types of information managed in Beatrix, including newsletters, YM Fact Sheets and YM News articles.

Whenever you start making edits to an article, the article will become checked out by you. A message will appear at the top of the article explaining this, as well as a small status banner at the bottom of the screen that will follow you along the page as you scroll.

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Checked out by me warnings.

While the article is checked out by you, only you can edit it.

Checking an article back in

There are three ways an article can be checked back in:

• Publishing the article

• Clicking the “Release Lock” button at the bottom of the page by the publish button

  • This is the best option if you have made changes but don’t want to publish yet

• Navigating to any other page in Beatrix

  • This also works if you want to check an article back in without editing

Troubleshooting

If everything is working properly, the only way an article would be “stuck” in checkout is if someone leaves the article open in their browser for an extended period of time after they make some edit, or if they close the browser window while editing the article without checking in or publishing.

If you open an article that is checked out by someone else, all fields will be disabled (you won’t be able to edit it) and a similar message and status banner will appear telling you as much (see “CheckedOutBySomeoneElse” screenshot attached). The message includes the name of the person who has the article checked out, as well as a link to contact support. The Web Services team has access to check in any article in the system.

So if you urgently need to edit an article and it is checked out by someone else:

1. First try contacting the person who has it checked out to make sure they’re not already editing it! They should be able to check in the article for you.

   1. We will be adding a link to the name of the person who has the item checked out so you can open an email to them directly from Beatrix.

2. If the person is not available, click the “contact support” link or message ysm.editor@yale.edu with a link to the article you need checked in.

   1. If we “force check in” an article that someone else is currently editing, they could lose their work.

      Open

      

      Article checked out by someone else.