Is the Get View of Workflow Service really read-only?

Question

Hi all,
When I dragged 'Get View' from Workflow Services to the workflow panel, its comments says: Get a read-only view, however, I did create a simple workflow to update user's information, using getView instead of checkoutView to fetch user view, it seems the 'Get View' return a updatable user view, here I post part of that workflow, please help me to get it clear!
      <Activity id='3' name='Get User View' hidden='true'>       
        <Variable name='view'/>
        <Action id='0' application='com.waveset.session.WorkflowServices'>
          <Argument name='op' value='getView'/>
          <Argument name='viewId'>
            <concat>
              <s>User:</s>
              <ref>accountId</ref>
            </concat>
          </Argument>
          <Argument name='type' value='User'/>
          <Return from='view' to='user'/>
        </Action>
        <Transition to='Update User Info'/>
        <WorkflowEditor x='249' y='100'/>
      </Activity>
      <Activity id='4' name='Update User Info'>       
        <Action id='0' name='set user department'>
          <expression>
            <set name='user.waveset.organization'>
              <ref>user.accounts[SDCHR].department</ref>
            </set>
          </expression>
        </Action>
        <Action id='1 application='com.waveset.session.WorkflowServices'>
          <Argument name='op' value='checkinView'/>
          <Argument name='view' value='$(user)'/>
        </Action>
        <Transition to='end'/>
        <WorkflowEditor x='378' y='143'/>
      </Activity>Thanks,
R.
Thurm

Answer 1

That is my understanding as well. Technically you can modify Get View and check it back in, but this is bad practice for the reasons stated above (no lock placed on the user). Get View is better used if you need to read information about a user that is unlikely to change, but do not plan on modifying the user (for example: to check to see if the user has a certain LDAP object class which allows them access to some requested resource/activity).