Lock post editing to one user at a time - wp_check_post_lock

Question

I am creating a website where user have to be logged in to give a price bid on a product. Only one bid can be given on the product. Therefore, I only want one user at a time to be able to give a bid. Is it possible to lock post editing to one user from the frontend? So if 2 or more user enters a post simultaneously, could a message tell the other user that someone else is giving a bid?

I had a quick look at this function from post.php wp_check_post_lock, but if I call it from my theme, it is unrecognized.

Answer 1

Imagine the following situation: One user leaves the browser window.

What happens? No other user can place a bid.

If you're using ajax to fire up the bid, then you can add the wp_check_post_lock() function in there. And also remove the lock. So the post is only locked as long as someone is actually placing/sending the bid. As this will only last for some ms, you have successfully worked around the post lock problem.

Edit

There's a new "post lock" feature for post types coming. This will be in 3.6 or 3.7. So far, no further details are known.