There is data in a table that is being processed by multiple users through
an application.

Each user can get a certain portion of the data, determined by a load wizard.
The wizard asks for the batch # you want to load, the number of records (up to
the number of records in the batch) and the sort order.

Here's this issue: Say there are 5000 records, and user Joe wants 1000 records, and
user Bill wants 1500 records, and Sally wants 500 records, then user Jill comes along
and wants some records. The wizard should display the number of records available in
each batch. When a user selects a dataset, those records should be locked for the
duration of their session.

It should also be possible for a user to selected records from the same batch in
2 different sessions on the same PC.

The problem is preventing anyone else from getting this records. I have an elaborate
scheme in place to handle this, but it doesn't seem to work very well. Users are
reporting that they cannot always see all of a batch in the wizard, and sometimes
the entire set they asked for doesn't get loaded.

Rather than continue plugging holes in this, I'd like to recode this area. I'd like
suggestions on how to do this.

TIA