Change "currently being edited by another user" behavior
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 1:41 pm
Not sure when this came into XI, but at least in 5.3 and 5.4, if user X is looking at a CCM page (service, host, etc) and user Y decides to look at it as well, user Y sees a warning about someone else editing the page and that they can remove the lock. I get why this is there, but this now makes it really hard for us to do our job sometimes. Here's why:
Lots of our customers are new to Nagios and require a fair amount of real-time training and handholding. The easiest way is to walk them through what needs to be done. Webex or other screen sharing technologies are not always available and sometimes it's easiest to just be on the phone with the customer and have them click what I click on our respective computers. As soon as that happens, only one of us can see the screen while the other sees a dimmed overlay with this lock warning on it. It makes it hard to help the customer and verify settings in real time.
Plus, we have two customers that have a number of people managing Nagios for the first time, and they have their own "Nagios parties" on a regular basis where they gather virtually to show each other what they've learned and what they're doing. Same problem - only one person can see the screen.
Killing the lock is one solution, but not a very elegant one. One suggestion would be to put the warning at the top of the page, allow the second user to see what's there, but disable the save button. This way, the second user can still see what the first user sees, switch among configuration tabs, and help out, without accidentally saving something. Then, if they want to, they can clear the lock from the warning at the top of the page.
This would make things SO much better for us and our customers. As it is, we have to "fake it" a lot and look at objects.cache to see what the final configuration is and assume that's what the user is seeing on their screen(s) when we do this sort of remote assist.
Lots of our customers are new to Nagios and require a fair amount of real-time training and handholding. The easiest way is to walk them through what needs to be done. Webex or other screen sharing technologies are not always available and sometimes it's easiest to just be on the phone with the customer and have them click what I click on our respective computers. As soon as that happens, only one of us can see the screen while the other sees a dimmed overlay with this lock warning on it. It makes it hard to help the customer and verify settings in real time.
Plus, we have two customers that have a number of people managing Nagios for the first time, and they have their own "Nagios parties" on a regular basis where they gather virtually to show each other what they've learned and what they're doing. Same problem - only one person can see the screen.
Killing the lock is one solution, but not a very elegant one. One suggestion would be to put the warning at the top of the page, allow the second user to see what's there, but disable the save button. This way, the second user can still see what the first user sees, switch among configuration tabs, and help out, without accidentally saving something. Then, if they want to, they can clear the lock from the warning at the top of the page.
This would make things SO much better for us and our customers. As it is, we have to "fake it" a lot and look at objects.cache to see what the final configuration is and assume that's what the user is seeing on their screen(s) when we do this sort of remote assist.