Secure Your Pigment Application with App Lock

You can use App Lock in Pigment to temporarily lock your application and to prevent any structural changes. 

Table of Contents

What is App lock?

When you use App Lock, it puts your application into a “safe state”, and it prevents everyone, including admins, from performing specific operations. However, members can continue to import and input data, and to edit Views and Boards. This means that the application is only partially restricted. 

By locking an application, you lock the structure for all members, regardless of their role and permissions. This includes admins with the highest level of permissions, preventing them from making accidental changes to an unlocked application. While admins can’t change the structure of a locked application, they do have permission to unlock the application.

Changing the App Lock status to Locked or Unlocked doesn’t impact the model or the data. You’re only changing the status of the application, so there’s no associated risk with App Lock.

Updated App Lock statuses are reflected to all connected members in real time, so you can lock and unlock the application at any time, and as frequently as you need.

How does App Lock work?​​​​​​​

When you lock your application with App Lock, members can’t perform these operations: 

• Update application and configuration settings
• Create or delete a block
• Update block settings or folders
• Update metric dimensions
• Create, update or delete list properties
• Update formulas
• Delete scenarios

However, when the application is locked, members can continue to: 

• Create, update, and delete Views & Boards
• Create and rename scenarios
• Perform manual inputs.
  For example, add, update, remove values in grids. 
• Trigger CSV and connector imports
• Create, update and delete import connections and configurations
• View block settings

If an application is locked, you’ll see a small lock icon (🔒) in the block header. You’ll also see this message in block pages: Structure locked

Why would I use App Lock?

Here are a few situations when it’s useful to lock an application:

• You need more control over changes performed in an application
• You want to temporarily secure an application from accidental changes
• You don’t want changes applied to a live application
  By locking an application, members are required to perform tests in a sandbox, or in a duplicate application. You can unlock the application when the changes are reviewed and approved. 
• You need to ensure that all active applications are stable

Who can use App Lock?

How can I use App Lock to lock an application?

You can lock an application structure from either the application menu in the workspace homepage or from the application’s general settings page. 

To lock the application structure from your workspace, do the following: 

1. In your workspace homepage, locate the application structure you want to lock.
2. Click the 3 dots to open your application menu. 
3. Do one of the following: 
   - Click Lock structure
   - Click Unlock structure

To lock the application structure from your application’s general settings, do the following: 

1. Open your application and click Settings.
2. In the Application management section, locate the Lock the structure of the Application setting.
3. Do one of the following: 
   - Click Lock
   - Click Unlock 

Considerations when using App Lock

You need to consider the following limitations when working with the current implementation of App Lock. We’re working to improve these limitations as we develop a larger initiative to provide an end-to-end change management feature.

• You can only access block settings from the block header
• The error section from the sidebar is only visible when the app is unlocked