Error message on second save to server: "Record updated by user BATCH-UPD"

• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 20

Description:
Staff save a record to server and continue to do work. On a second save to server, they receive a red error message,
Record updated by user BATCH-UPD on ....

This is very frustrating to staff and it causes several extra steps as they typically copy the entire record, close the record entirely, bring it up again and paste and save.

1) What causes this error to appear?
2) Is there a faster way around it?
3) Can we make it go away altogether?

Resolution:
This message "Record updated by user BATCH-UPD on ...." is # 0221 in ./error_eng/check_doc.

It comes from this line in the ./xxx01tab/check_doc_mandatory:
CATALOG-INSERT 0221 M Record was updated by another user.

If you look at the record, you will see that a CAT field has been added with "BATCH-UPD" as the cataloger name.

The two routines which produce CAT fields with BATCH-UPD as the cataloger name are ue_01 (the indexing daemon) and p_manage_21 (global change).

If the CAT fields are not providing enough information, the z00t (new in version 20) could be implemented. It shows the field, time, and cataloger for each bib record change.

In this case, it is almost certainly ue_01 which has produced the update: the cataloger saved the record, a z07 record was created, and the z07 was processed by ue_01 which updated the bib record and wrote a CAT field corresponding to this update.

This line in the ./xxx01/tab/tab_fix is what causes ue_01 to update the bib record:
UE_01 fix_doc_ref_1

This line is necessary in order for changes from authority records to flip bib headings. (If your authority records have UPD=N or you do not want to update the bib fields automatically, this tab_fix line could be commented out.)

In these cases where there has not been any change to the heading but ue_01 is still updating the record, it usually has to do with the punctuation in names/subjects -- in particular the period which occurs at the end of the heading in the bib record but is absent in the authority record version of the heading. tab_subfield_punctuation can play a role in this....

At another site seeing this problem, the ./xxx01/tab/tab_fix had this line:
UE_01 fix_doc_005

As an initial test, I suggest that you stop ue_01 temporarily and do the update to confirm that it is ue_01 which is causing the problem. If so, then you could consider whether some update is actually being done -- or whether it is just trying to correct a name/subject to eliminate the period (but then is being adjusted by tab_subfield_punctuation to include the period).

If this doesn't get you anywhere, you could change the check_doc_mandatory line so that it is overridable. You would change the "M" to a "T" (the "T" stands for Trigger; as described in the check_doc_mandatory header, a z104 trigger record is written, for later review by a Cataloging supervisor):

CATALOG-INSERT 0221 T Record was updated by another user.

You may also want to refer to KB 4462 which explains the underlying locking mechanism.

• Article last edited: 10/8/2013