When a user signs on to the system, the system places a check mark in the Working Now? column in the User Names and Access window. As the user works in the system, a periodic check runs in the background to determine if the user is still working. The user's browser also periodically sends a signal to the server to indicate that the browser is still being used. This "user-side" signal is different than the "server-side" signal performed by the system.
When a user is finished working in the system, properly exit the system by clicking the Logout button in the User Menu. The system clears the check mark in the Working Now? column to indicate that the user is no longer working in the system.
If the user improperly exits the system (for example, by turning off the computer or closing the lid of the laptop), the system will not immediately clear the check mark in the Working Now? column. Instead, the system will continue to check whether the user is working in the system for the period of time set by the SESSION_TIMEOUT system parameter. When the duration of inactivity exceeds the value of this parameter, the system clears the check mark in the Working Now? column.
Rather than waiting for this period of time to elapse (or if a session can never time-out), a system administrator may elect to run the Clean Abandoned Sessions system job. This system job checks whether the server has received a signal from a user's browser within the last five minutes. If not, the system clears the check mark in the Working Now? column.
In summary, the Working Now? column nearly always provides a true indication of whether a user is working in the system. The conditions under which the check box may indicate that a user is working when in fact he or she is not are either:
- The time period between the user improperly exiting the system and the expiration of the duration set by the SESSION_TIMEOUT parameter
- The time period since the user improperly exited the system is less than five minutes from the start of the Clean Abandoned Sessions system job
