Edit Locking: Preventing Simultaneous Edits

Why edit locking exists

When multiple people have access to the same transparency notice, there is a risk of conflicting changes. Two team members might open the same draft at the same time, each make different edits, and then both try to save. Without any coordination, one person's changes would silently overwrite the other's.

The Taurus prevents this with an edit locking mechanism. When you open a notice for editing, the platform locks that notice so other team members cannot make changes at the same time.

How it works

When you open a transparency notice draft in the wizard for editing, The Taurus acquires a lock on that notice on your behalf. While the lock is active:

• You can edit and save the notice normally.
• Other team members who open the same notice see a message indicating that the notice is currently being edited. The message shows who holds the lock and when the lock was acquired.
• Viewers are not affected — read-only access does not require a lock and is always available.

The lock is tied to your editing session. As long as you are actively working in the wizard, the lock remains in place.

Automatic lock refresh

The lock does not last forever by default. To prevent abandoned locks from blocking the rest of the team, locks have a timeout period. However, while you are actively editing, the platform automatically refreshes the lock at regular intervals. You do not need to do anything — the refresh happens in the background as long as the wizard is open and your browser tab is active.

This means the lock stays active for as long as you are working, but expires if you walk away, close the tab, or lose your connection.

What happens when you stop editing

There are several ways an editing session can end:

• You save and close the wizard. The lock is released and the notice becomes available for others to edit.
• You navigate away without saving. The lock is not released immediately, but it expires after the timeout period. Your unsaved changes are lost.
• Your browser tab becomes inactive for an extended period. The automatic refresh stops, and the lock eventually expires.
• You lose your internet connection. The refresh requests stop reaching the server, and the lock expires after the timeout.

In every case where you do not explicitly save and close, the lock expires on its own. No one needs to manually intervene.

What other team members see

When a notice is locked by someone else, other team members who try to edit it see:

• The name of the person currently editing
• The time the lock was acquired
• A clear indication that the notice is locked and cannot be edited right now

They can still view the notice in its current saved state. They just cannot enter the editing wizard until the lock is released or expires.

Taking over editing

If you need to edit a notice that someone else has locked, you have two options:

1. Ask them to finish. If the lock holder is available, ask them to save their changes and close the wizard. This releases the lock immediately.
2. Wait for the timeout. If the lock holder is unavailable — perhaps they left for the day with the tab open — the lock will expire after the timeout period. Once expired, the notice becomes available for editing again.

There is no "force unlock" button. This is deliberate. Forcing a lock open while someone is actively editing would risk data loss for the person holding the lock.

Optimistic locking: the safety net

Edit locking is the first line of defense, but The Taurus has a second layer of protection: optimistic locking using a version field on each draft.

Every time a notice draft is saved, the platform increments a version number. When you submit a save, the platform checks that the version you started editing from matches the current version in the database. If they match, the save proceeds. If they do not match — meaning someone else managed to save changes between your load and your save — the platform rejects the save and notifies you of the conflict.

This is a backstop for edge cases: network issues, expired lock races, or unforeseen timing problems. In normal usage, the edit lock prevents these conflicts from arising in the first place. But if something slips through, the version check catches it and ensures no data is silently overwritten.

Summary

Edit locking is designed to stay out of your way during normal work while protecting the team from conflicting changes. You do not need to think about it unless you encounter a locked notice — and when you do, the platform tells you exactly who is editing and why you need to wait.