Seeing Who Else Is on an Application
If two assessors write a recommendation on the same application at the same time, one of them loses their work. Presence is there to stop that happening: it shows who else has the application open, and what they are working on.
The avatars
At the top of an application, next to its status, is a row of avatars — one for each colleague who currently has it open. The green dot on each one means they are in the application right now. Hover over an avatar to see whose it is.
Everyone has their own colour, so two people are easy to tell apart even when their initials are the same. If more than four people are on the application at once, the rest are counted in a +2 at the end of the row.
You never see your own avatar.
Finding out who is editing what
The avatars tell you who is here. To see what someone is doing, look at the section they are doing it in — a short line appears there naming them:
Under the observation box | "Adam is updating…" means he has unsaved changes in that field. |
Under the recommendation box | The same, for recommendations. |
In the Assessment panel | Someone else is ranking this application. This one appears only while you are assessing, because that is the only time it affects you. |
When several people are in the same section they are named together — "Adam and Tom Beckett are updating…", and beyond two, "Adam and 2 others are updating…".
How it keeps itself up to date
Your browser checks in every few seconds while the tab is open. If someone stops checking in for about half a minute they drop off the list, so a closed laptop or a dropped wifi connection tidies itself up. Nobody has to remember to sign out.
Switch to a different browser tab and your check-ins pause, so you disappear from your colleagues' view while you are working on something else.
It will not stop you
Nothing is locked. Two people can still type into the same field at the same time and the last save still wins. Presence just makes it obvious that it is about to happen, so you can send a message before you collide rather than after.
What your colleagues can see
Your name, and which of those activities you are doing. That is all.
Nothing you type is shared. A half-written recommendation stays in your browser. Colleagues see that you are editing, never what you are writing.