* Multiple users editing a single project

[HYoung]

Good morning,

It has been awhile since I have been on this forum but some may remember I work for a not-for-profit researching Indigenous Australian histories and genealogies. I am currently collaborating on a large dataset which is stored on our server. Occasionally my colleague and I are plugging into FH at the same time and the user is notified that the project has been modified by the other and asks to update the project. This appears to be successful and we backup regularly.

I just wanted to make sure that this is acceptable for Family Historian to have multiple users given the update message that occurs? My only concern would be if we were editing data on the same individuals/families but we communicate what we are working on in this regard so I don't foresee it to be a problem. I just wondered if anyone else supports multiple-users editing projects?

Thanks for your support.
Regards,
Hayley.

[tatewise]

Hi Hayley.

I presume the two (or more ) copies of FH each have a different purchased license from Calico Pie?
Please confirm.

Fundamental, FH does NOT support multi-user access to anything under any circumstances.

If two users are editing data anywhere in the same Project at the same time then they risk corrupting the Project data.
That will apply even if editing different records, because there is only one GEDCOM database file.
You must implement a strict regime of only one user at a time.

e.g.
Imagine user 1 and user 2 both start editing together.
They both load the current Project GEDCOM into FH roughly together.
User 1 starts editing Individual record X while user 2 starts editing Individual record Y.
Assume user 1 performs a Save or FH performs an Auto-Save.
So the Project GEDCOM file now has an updated Individual record X.
User 2 gets notified the GEDCOM file has been modified by another application and does he want to reload it?
He has two options:
Yes reload GEDCOM which includes new Individual record X but obliterates changes to Individual record Y.
No so when user 2 performs a Save or FH performs an Auto-Save then Individual record Y will be updated, but obliterates changes to Individual record X, and user 1 is now faced with the same dilemma.