Centralized Data, Checking Out and Global Locking

When working with Harmony Server, all scenes and their data are stored directly on the database; no data is saved or stored on the client machine. The client machines access the database and load the scenes and drawings directly from the server. Each time the user saves a scene, the data is updated directly on the server. There are no upload or download operations done between the server and the clients. However, when working with the Web Control Center, users must download and upload scenes to the Harmony database.

Harmony has a lock system, referred to as global lock, for the different scenes and scene assets. Since all data on the server can be accessed directly and modified from any client machine, by default, scenes are locked and users must get the rights to modify them in order to save their work onto the server. Only one user at a time can modify a scene. Once a scene is opened on a client machine, other users can open the scene in read-only mode if they need to consult it, but they will not be able to save any modifications.

In the Web Control Center, when a scene is downloaded locally by a user, global locking does not apply as it will be modified in Harmony Stand Alone. To ensure that scenes are not simultaneously modified and causing conflicts, scenes downloaded through the Web Control Center can be checked out by a user. When scenes are checked out, they can be opened in read-only mode in Harmony Server.

Global lock has several levels:

A Harmony project can be locked at various levels. Its timing, drawings, version and palettes can be locked. Locking means that you have the rights to modify a scene or its assets. Other users cannot modify locked items. If someone tries to open a locked scene, it will be displayed as read-only.

Here are the different lock possibilities:

Lock Description
Scene or Version Lock Controls the Xsheet timing, layers, nodes but not the drawing, palettes, palette-lists or templates.
Drawing Lock Only one user can edit and save a locked drawing.
Palette Lock Only one user can edit and save a locked palette.
Palette-list Lock Only one user can edit and save a locked palette-list.
Library Folder lock Only one user can edit and save into that folder in the Library.

There are several different ways to obtain the rights to modify the scenes. It can be done when the user loads a scene from Harmony, inside the application once the scene is loaded, or when an environment, job or scene is created using the Control Center module.