Edit Control

The Aras Workspace Productivity Connector provides several features to support editing files in Workspace applications.

In Aras terminology, when a user Claims an Item like a Document, they reserve it for editing - meaning only they can make changes to it. Only one person at a time can claim any given Item. When the user Unclaims the Item, it is available for others to claim and edit. The ability to claim Items is controlled by Aras’s Permissions. For example, Permissions for most users are set so that when an Item is in the Preliminary (in-work) State, it can be claimed, but when it is in the Released State, it cannot be claimed and, therefore, cannot be edited.

The Aras Workspace Productivity Connector leverages the Claim and Unclaim functions to control who has the right to edit files. The Claim Status is indicated by the Claimed by field in the task pane. If the field displays a user’s name, the Document is claimed by that user and only they can edit it.. If the field is empty, the Document is unclaimed. The Aras Workspace Productivity Connector automates much of the Claim and Unclaim behavior in intuitive ways when working on Workspace files.

Use Done when finished editing, and Aras will take care of proper Claiming and Unclaiming.

Another approach to managing the Document change process is to use manual Lifecycle State Promotion, in which case there is no ECO or DCO as described in the previous section. Still, users can simply promote from one state to another manually. For example, here is a simple Document Lifecycle Map showing three States that the Document can have:

If Documents are defined in this manner, then an administrator can set up the Aras Workspace Productivity Connector so that the Promote command can be accessed directly from the Workspace ribbon. By clicking on this command, the current Document can be promoted to a desired state. Note that the Document must be unclaimed to promote.