I have several tabs on a layout and each tab pulls informaiton from a few different tables... is there a way to restrict access to certain tabs using permission sets? Or do I have to restrict access to certain tables and the fields will just come up as denied? The problem with the latter is that a user should have access to SOME information in one table... Advice?

You can set up custom privileges to control access at the field level, you don't have to lock down the whole table. See "Editing record access privileges" in the Help file.

I understand the access restriction at the table and layout level, but how can you prevent a user from selecting a specific TAB? There are scripts you can use to navigate through the Tabs, but I want to restrict the user from selecting a tab unless other criteria have been met. (i.e, the previous tab fields are all populated) I've spent some time trying to find the answer in previous posts, but have fallen short. Can someone please explain if this is possible?

After mucking around with this for the last five minutes, I decided to delete my response and come back to this later.

I haven't been able to settle on a technique that works, and the technique I do recall is recalled incompletely.

Edited April 21, 200619 yr by Guest

Tabs are not intended to be managed in this fashion. That does not mean that some workaround can't be contrived. However, the tab is a UI space saver and it really not controlable via privileges. That said, you can make waht's on the subsequent tab not available until the other data are completed.

Steven

... do I have to restrict access to certain tables and the fields will just come up as denied? The problem with the latter is that a user should have access to SOME information in one table...

My post was in response to this quote. You seem to be saying that the only way to lock down a field is to lock down the whole table, and that's not the case.

I didn't mean to imply that tab objects can be controlled by accounts and privileges; only that the fields on them can be controlled, so even though your user can still go to the tab, they would be denied access to those fields. At the same time they could have access to other fields in the same table. That's up to you.

want to restrict the user from selecting a tab unless other criteria have been met. (i.e, the previous tab fields are all populated)

Assuming this is what you want to do, you could overlay a button over each tab (this sort of begins to destroy the point of using the tab object in the first place, but nevertheless). Secondly to each of these buttons you would attach as script that makes sure all the conditions are met eg:

IF [conditions to be met here -> This can include not IsEmpty checks for example (i.e. make sure specific fields have been filled in)]

GO TO FIELD [A field on your tab page goes here]

ELSE

SHOW CUSTOM DIALOG [ "Error" ; "Conditions haven't been met" ]

END IF

Hope this helps out in some sense.

~Genx

It just occurred to me that "visible/invisible" portals might be another good way to manage access to the fields in question.

If controlling tab access is difficult, self joins and portals based on calc fields as keys can limit access to fields or groups of fields.

Example: Tabs would appear blank unless certain conditions were met.