Open Plan Briefcasing Feature
The briefcasing feature of Open Plan enables you to check out a project, work on it, and then check it back in.
Checking out a project is similar to opening a project in Exclusive mode in that while you have the project checked out, you are the only person who can save changes to it. There is, however, a difference:
- A project that is open in Exclusive mode is automatically closed when you exit Open Plan. At that time, other users with the appropriate rights can open the project in Exclusive or Shared mode, make changes, and save their changes.
- A project that is checked out cannot be modified by other users until you check it back in. Checking out a project is, therefore, especially useful when you need to maintain exclusive rights to the project over a longer period of time.
To check out a project, you must be able to open it in Exclusive mode. This means that in addition to having the appropriate rights to the project, no other user can have it open in either Exclusive or Shared mode at the time you want to check it out.
Open Plan enables you to check out a project in two ways:
- In the Main Data Source: When a project is checked out in the Main data source, it is locked so that it cannot be modified by other users. When you later check in the project, Open Plan removes the lock.
- To the Briefcase Data Source: When a project is checked out to the Briefcase data source, Open Plan copies the project and all its ancillary files to your Briefcase data source. You also have the option of copying the views used by the project. Checking out a project in this manner enables you to work on your project on another computer.
You cannot modify or delete external subprojects, foreign subprojects, or foreign activities that a briefcased project may contain, nor can you create these items.