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[geoff355019591oyn]

Does anyone know a way to enable a way to notify a user when a pdf file is currently in use? 

In our company, we have many pdf files and the number one IT ticket is that someopne left it open and the file needs to be "unlocked"  - aka close the file on the server. 

I know Excel has this feature, was wondering if Adobe does also? 

[Thom Parker]

There is no built-in method for this in Acrobat, but there are a couple of ways to do it. In fact, you've just shown one of them, which is to open the file with no sharing and see what happens.  This could be done programatically from an app.  

The other method is to build this feature into the document itself. The idea is for the document to write some value (such as the DocID or Path, and the user ID) to an external storage location. Then when someone else opens the document it checks the external location to see if it's already open, and by whome.  Since you are in a closed system this could be implemented with an automation tool that is installed on all user's systems. 

[geoff355019591oyn]

would you mind sharing step by step on how to test this out?

[Thom Parker]

I was just speculating on how it could be done. I don't have a specific methodology worked out. 

But here's an idea based on a local environment were you have control over the users computers:

1) user opens document

2) document open script submits to a PHP script on a local server

3) PHP scrpt checks a DB to see if document is in use by any other user.

4) If it is, an error message is returned to Acrobat 

5) If it isn't, then the PHP script writes a line into the DB and returns success

6) The result is retuned, and the user is either told the document is ready to use or blocked.