Joomla 1.7 increases it’s security and safety feature by only allowing one user to edit an article/module or extension at a time. After a user edits an article/module or extension, that’s when the Lock or Padlock icon shows beside the item that they are editing. As an administrator you can monitor all items that are currently edited. No other user can Edit/Save the same item at the same time. For Example in the Article Manager, you might see lock icons like the screenshot to the left. Cmsmind Article 1 and 2 are currently “Checked Out”
There are a couple reasons why this lock icon is showing:
- A user is currently editing the articles and have not clicked on ‘Save & Close’, or ‘Cancel’. Once any of these actions have been performed the item will “Check in” and other users can edit.
- Communication Error. If user clicks on ‘Back’ or closes the window, the article/module will remain locked.
For example, my articles ‘Cmsmind.com Article 1″ and “Cmsmind.com Article 2” articles are locked because there was a connection error, only the System Administrator can check them back in. Here is how the System Admin can check these articles back in, remove the lock icon and allow other uses to edit the items.
I currently have 3 articles that are locked in my Content Manager.
- Login to Joomla 1.7 Administrator Backend
- Click on ‘Site’, ‘Maintenance’, ‘Global Check-in’
- Click on all checkboxes or in my case I wanted to release my articles, Click on ‘Content Table’
- Click on the button ‘Check in‘ on the top right corner.
You will check in articles that have not been saved, so any unsaved changes will be lost.
After you click on ‘Check-in’, the articles will be released. The lock icon will be removed and other users will be able to edit the articles. You will see a message similar to the one below:
3 items checked-in
Now go back to your Article Manager and you will see the lock icon removed from the articles that were previously checked out.
Thanks,