Version 7.1902

A new Allow reviewers to check-out items field was added to the Review Workflow page. Project managers can allow reviewers to manually check out a question for 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month. When this option is selected, a Check-out button appears on the Review Questions page.

This setting may be configured for each Review State.

Reviewers may click the Check-out button to check out the question and lock it to prevent other users from editing the question. Reviewers do not have to be actively editing the question to lock the question. The Check-out button changes to Check-in when the question has been locked for editing. The question remains locked for the specified time period even if the changes to the question are saved. The question will be checked in at 3 am on the day that the check-out limit expires unless the Reviewer changes the state of the question by Advancing or Returning the question, or if they manually check-in the question.

Other users viewing the question from the Review Questions page receive a real-time item review notification that the question is checked out along with the date and time stamp for when the question was locked.

The Project Manager has the ability to override the check-out from the Examine Questions page.

Note: If a question is checked out and the Review Workflow configuration is set to 1 week, if the Project Manager changes the configuration to 1 day, the question that is checked out honors the time period of 1 week as long as it remains checked out.

If a reviewer has manually checked-out a question by clicking the Check-out button, they can click the Check-in button to take the lock off the question.

Other users viewing the question from the Review Questions page that can see the real-time item review notification that the question is checked out will see the notification disappear once the question is checked-in.

Note: If the manual check-out buttons are not enabled, the check-in button may appear on the Review Questions page if a user was editing a question and then clicked the Cancel button. Any changes they were making to the question are not saved, but the question remains checked-out. Users can click the Check-in button to manually check-in this question.

Project Managers may manually check-out questions from the Examine Questions page to prevent other users from editing the question. A Check-out button appears on the Examine Questions page.

When project managers click the Check-out button, the question is locked for 99 years unless one of the following actions occur:

• A project manager clicks the Check-in button
• The State of the question is changed
• The project manager modifies and Submits the item on the Modify page

The system does not automatically check-in the question when it has been manually checked out in the following scenarios:

• If the system-timeout period elapses for the project manager that manually checked-out the question
• If the project manager opens the question on the Modify Question page and leaves it idle for more than five minutes

The following actions occur when project managers manually check-out questions:

• Reviewers receive real-time review notifications if the project manager manually checks out the question
• The Modify, Advance, and Return buttons are disabled for Reviewers when the project manager manually checks out the question
• Project Managers may click the Check-in button to override a check-out that was placed on a question from a reviewer. They must click the Check-out button if they want to prevent other users from making edits to the question. Reviewers that are actively editing a question which the project manager manually checked-in and then checked-out will receive a real-time review notification that the question is checked out when they try and save the question and they are prevented from saving their changes.

Project Managers may manually check-in questions that have been check-out by by themselves or by other users. Questions can be checked-in from the Examine Questions page.

• Project Managers may click the Check-in button to override a check-out that was placed on a question from a reviewer. They must click the Check-out button if they want to prevent other users from making edits to the question. Reviewers that are actively editing a question which the project manager manually checked-in and then checked-out will receive a real-time review notification that the question is checked out when they try and save the question and they are prevented from saving their changes.

When users open questions to edit them, an automatic check-out (or lock) for the question occurs and a message is displayed at the top of the page stating, "You checked out item 12345 on MMM DD, YYYY at HH:MM." This message appears on the Write Questions, Write Case Questions, Modify Questions from the Review Questions workflow, and Modify Questions from the Examine Questions page.

If another user tries to edit the question while it is checked out, a message is displayed at the top of the page stating, "John Doe checked out item 12345 on June 28, 2018 at 13:08." This message appears on the Examine Questions and the Review Questions page. The Advance, Return, Modify, and Return to Author buttons are disabled on the Review Questions and Examine Questions pages as long as the question is checked-out.

On the edit question pages, the auto checkout is affected by the buttons in the following ways:

• Save - question remains checked out, user stays on the edit page
• Finish Later - saves and checks-in the question
• Return - saves and checks-in the questions
• Advance - saves and checks-in the question
• Cancel - does not save the question, question remains checked out, auto check-in the question after 5 minutes away from the edit page
• Navigate away from page - does not save the question, question remains checked out, auto check-in after 5 minutes away from the edit page

When users have questions checked out on an edit question page, if the system times out, the questions are automatically checked in. This prevents questions from remaining checked out without a user actively editing a question.

Once the question is checked in, other users can open the question for editing.

If you change the state of a question that is checked-out, the system automatically checks-in the question.

The following pages/scenarios automatically check-in the question when you change the state:

• Perform a Batch Edit to advance or return a group of questions
• Change the State of a question from the Examine Questions page
• Submit the question from the Validate Questions page
• Click Submit All on the Add/Edit Case page (This does not work for me)
• Click Finish Case on the Write Case Question page (This does not work for me)
• Click Advance or Return on the Review Questions page
• Click Advance or Return on the Modify Questions page (from the Review Question page)
• Click Submit on the Write Questions page

Question locking for Cases and Case questions were added to prevent other users from overwriting changes to the case and questions. Bulk locking for the case was added.

When you open a Case to view or edit it, all the case questions and exhibit questions are checked out as a group. A message at the top of the page identifies all the questions are checked out in the case.

All the questions are checked in 5 minutes after navigating away from the Add/Edit Case page, or if the system times out even if the user is still on the Add/Edit Case page.

If the exhibit is locked, a message notifies users who checked out the exhibit and includes a list of the question IDs along with the timestamp when it was checked out.

When adding or removing a list of questions to a Case, any questions in the list that are locked are skipped and a message notifies the user who has the question checked out along with the time stamp.

For questions that have been manually checked-out and they are due to be automatically checked in tomorrow (i.e., day, week, month is about to expire), an email notification job runs.

• An email is sent to the users who checked-out the item.
• One email is sent for each project that contains questions about to be checked-in.
• The email includes the following information:
  Item bank
  Project
  Specific items to be checked-in
  

Reviewers will see a Real-Time Review Notification identifying the number of users currently viewing an item. The message states, "There are currently x reviewers viewing this item."

• If the number of reviewers increases or decreases for any reason, the number of reviewers viewing the item is updated in near real-time without refreshing the page.
• If the number of reviewers is 0 or becomes 0, the notification is hidden in near real-time without refreshing the page.
• If the number of reviewers increases from 0, the notification appears on the Review Questions page in near real-time with refreshing the page.