PCon 3.5

This extension of Productivity Controlling 3.0 added concurrent multi-user access to the application.

The most important feature in version 3.5 of the Productivity-Controlling (PCon) application is concurrent user support. The original design did not allow multiple users to access the Microsoft Access database at the same time. Since Access itself does not provide concurrent access capabilities, the most practical fix was to introduce a DCOM server component that monitors database access and keeps track of active connections.

When a user accesses a record, it is marked as locked on the DCOM locking server. If another user tries to access the same record, they receive a message indicating that the record is currently in use. In the list view, locked records are indicated by a red prohibition sign.

Another addition is the full implementation of the application’s help system using Doc2Help 4.0. On every screen, both the question mark button and the F1 key provide access to the context-sensitive help system.