Our company needs to collaborate on a Excel sheet that will be accessed by coordinators located in Scandinavia and the US. If the file is already is opened by one coordinator, is there a way that the next one trying to open it can get access something like: "view only, file is in use", or can the file be opened by two at the same time and the "winner" is the one who saves last?

In our corporate net we do get this kind of file locking, but is it possible on DriveHQ

Thanks
John

Please note it is not safe to lock files over web/HTTP connection.

• The system has no way to know if a user opens a file for viewing or editing. In fact, a lot of times the user himself is not sure about it;
• HTTP connection is really "connection-less", i.e. each HTTP action is independent. The systems doesn't know when editing is finished and when the lock should be released. When you browse a file, and navigate to another file, the system has no way to decide if the previous file is still being used or if it will be used again. If you walk away or close the browser or DriveHQ FileManager, the system doesn't know if you are still using the file or if you will come back soon or not.

There is a much better workaround, you just need to set a rule among your team:

Assuming a project file named project.doc, a user (John) wants to edit it, he renames it to Project-John-Date.doc before starts editing. This way, all other users know that the file is being used by John; Maybe John is not really editing, so they can contact John to find it out. John (or others) can rename the file back.

When John has finished editing, he should change the file name back to Project.doc.

We have improved our support for file collaboration:

(1) Users can turn on the file versioning feature. For new users, "file versioning" is automatically enabled. For existing users, it can be turned on from the "Account Options" page. With "file versioning" enabled, if a file is overwritten, the previous versions will be kept. Users can easily roll back to an older version.

(2) If two persons are editing the same file at the same time using DriveHQ FileManager or DriveHQ.com website, then only the first person can save the file. If the second person tries to save the file, it will report an error saying "The file has been changed on server".

We recommend file locking using the following method: (it is more flexible than the traditional file locking method).

The traditional file locking method locks a file when one person is editing the file. Other people cannot edit the file. However, the first person might have finished editing the file but left the file open. There is no easy way to find out who locked the file. This is very inconvenient.

A better file locking solultion is to setup a rule:

If a team of people need to work on the same file "project.doc", then each person must manually "lock" the file before he starts editing the file. When finished, he must "unlock" the file.

To lock a file, a user (e.g. John) just need to rename the file. For example, rename "project.doc" to "Project-John.doc".

This way, other users know that the file is being used by John.  After he finishes editing the file, he shall "unlock" the file.

Users can also open the file without locking it. It is much more convenient.

As we launched DriveHQ Enterprise WebDAV Solution in 2012, file locking is now supported in WebDAV Drive Mapping. To map a cloud drive, it is recommended to install the WebDAV Drive Mapping Tool:

http://www.drivehq.com/file/df.aspx/publish/drivehq/DriveHQSoftware/DHQWebDAVDriveMappingTool.msi

When a user opens an MS Office file on a DriveHQ cloud drive, the file will be automatically locked. Other users can only open the file in read-only mode.

Manual file locking / unlocking is also supported on www.drivehq.com.

File locking is not supported in FTP and DriveHQ FileManager. There is an easy workaround as described in the previous message. However, we do plan to add file locking feature to DriveHQ FileManager in the near future.

Update to the previous answers:

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DriveHQ has supported Cloud File Locking for many years.

Both DriveHQ FileManager and WebDAV Cloud Drive support advanced cloud file locking. For more info, please visit the Cloud File Locking feature page. 

Most other cloud storage services cannot support file locking because they use Folder Sync based cloud storage or Browser based cloud storage. 

- With Folder Sync based cloud storage, when you edit a "cloud" file, you are actually editing a local copy of the file. The local file is locked, but the cloud file is not. Thus it cannot support Cloud File Locking. 

- Browser-based cloud storage apps don't support file locking except if a file is edited in a web page. Since most file types need to be opened/edited with a desktop program (e.g. MS Office, Photoshop, AutoCAD, etc.), a cloud file must be downloaded to a local folder first and then edited locally. Therefore, it will not lock the cloud file.