Does the utility work on older versions of QAD?
Yes, the Record Lock utility works with all QAD ERP versions.
	Does this utility work with QAD Cloud?
The Record Lock utility does work with QAD Cloud, but you may have to have QAD help with installation. The utility itself is free to you, but installation by QAD may require a fee. Please check with your QAD representative.
	What is best procedure for ending background Progress processes that are causing locks?
We would recommend that you use this utility to discover who is locking and then first call that person to find out what they are doing. It could be that they are running a large shipping process, for example, that you don’t want to interrupt. If you do want to kill the process, it is best to use the Progress promon or proshut utilities.
	Is this something that is easily installed?
Yes. When you receive the files, you will see that there are 3 programs. The first allows you to see the locks in real time. The second allows you to schedule running the utility in batch to collect a snapshot at assigned intervals. This program also takes care of emailing IT and, optionally, the user who is locking records. The third program will generate reports of lock history for analysis. You install the programs in your custom source folder and compile them to your custom us/xx folder and then install and run them from there.
	Can this be run from .Net UI?
These programs can be run in the character interface; they were not tested under .NET
	If our users are using .Net UI, will the report say the record is locked by that user, or will it show a generic produi user?
The report would show the QAD user ID.
	How can I use the software — it´s outside QAD, correct?
You install this program as a custom report in QAD, so it is installed and runs as a QAD menu.
	Does it matter what release of QAD/Progress we are running?
We have not tested it on all releases, but it should work with Progress versions 9 and up. You must have the VST tables enabled.
	Why is it free? You cannot live on air :) What is the business objective behind giving the utility away for free?
We use this utility to help in our process of developing productivity solutions for QAD. However, utilities such as this one are not part of our core business. We knew this would be beneficial to QAD users and want to share this knowledge, but we don’t want to take time away from our core business to develop and support it for sale. So, it is a goodwill gesture on our part.
	Open or Encrypted source?
Encrypted source.
	Is the utility able to detect locks in all databases or just the qaddb database?
It runs against the QAD database.
	Once installed, what process do you use to run the program, etc.?
If you want to monitor locks, you can schedule the program to run at intervals, say, every 10-15 minutes. You can take a snapshot at these intervals to analyze later. Or, you can run the utility anytime to pinpoint a specific real-time problem.
	Where can I download this software?
You can request your free software and instructions here.
	We have many different and important programs that can use the same tables at the same time. What is your recommendation to eliminate locks in this environment?
First, find the root cause of the problem. Once you identified program(s) that causes locks, see if you can optimize 4GL logic in the program so it does not lock records for a long time. You may need to hire experts for this or file a QAD ticket if it has to do with QAD programs. If you are still experiencing problems, consider re-designing the whole process to streamline the lock situations. If you encounter really painful lock situations which slow down your business, seek an expert’s advice. Feel free to get in touch with us for a recommendation of good, reliable resources.
	Often times the record locks are caused by a barcode scanner’s battery giving out in the middle of a transaction, so that the system doesn’t know when the barcode scanner operator has started a fresh session after changing the battery.
It would be so much easier to tackle the problem from the different angle. Train employees to check the battery charge level before they start using the scanner. Perhaps you can purchase another set of batteries for scanners and have them charged and available anytime. If users fail to check the battery level and it dies in the middle of the transaction, the best you can do is trace the dead session and kill it. But if an IT person is not available, the users will not be able to process locked record(s) until the dead session gets released (usually up to 2 hours). It is more difficult and more expensive to correct the consequences than it is to train people to make sure their scanner battery is fully charged and reliable.

 
FAQs
Q: We have installed the utility and it works fine. We are working in a factory environment with warehouse people managing inventory and SO using handheld scanners. Some scanner menu functions create an exclusive lock in a table for a long period of time. Could you build another utility for us that we could hook into a QAD menu that will allow an administrator to easily kill a task if it is blocking QAD?

A: Yes, however killing a session could potentially cause larger issues with data integrity, so we don’t recommend it. This problem definitely sounds like a software bug since tables should only be locked for a short period of time. We would advise you to collect data like the program name(s) and the length of time the tables were locked and report the issue to QAD or your barcode data collection software vendor. They may be able to give you a patch to fix this.

If you don’t succeed with QAD or your barcode data collection vendor, we may be able to write a script that will automatically and gracefully exit a specific table when it is locked for more than a certain amount of time. We can work with you on a time and material basis. We would be happy to offer you the alternative solution of our Data Loaders that will help you manage SOs and inventory efficiently and would not create locks in your system.