Patent ID: 8433693

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a request to modify a data file by an application program at a client device; determining a file type for the data file where the file type is one of an immutable file type, a locking required file type, and a locking preferred file type; accessing a set of file access rules based on the file type; and determining whether the application program has permission to modify the data file based on the file access rules, wherein the file access rules require a network connection to a locking server for editing when the file type is the locking required file type, the file access rules do not require the network connection to the locking server for editing when the file type is the immutable file type, and the file access rules for the locking preferred file type only require the network connection to the locking server for editing when the network connection to the locking server is available, wherein a lock is granted to the application program if the file type is the locking preferred file type and the network connection to the locking server is not available.