Limit privleges by author

[Jason Goldsmith]

Is it possible to limit write privleges to the author of a particular record? I need to be able to provide the author of a record the ability to come back and amend that record, and allow other users to read only.

If so, can this be extended to series of related records based on the authors original record?

Thanks,

Jason

[CobaltSky]

Is it possible to limit write privleges to the author of a particular record? I need to be able to provide the author of a record the ability to come back and amend that record, and allow other users to read only.

Yes, that's possible.

For instance, you could set up a field that auto-enters the account name (Get(AccountName)) at the time the record is created. Then, under Accounts & Privileges you will be able to set up a limitation formula for Records: Custom Privileges Edit access for the relevant privilege set/s with a formula along the lines of:

AuthorAccount = Get(AccountName)

(where "AuthorAccount" is the name of the auto-enter text field mentioned above).

That will, however only apply in the table/s for which you define it within Accounts & Privileges.

If so, can this be extended to series of related records based on the authors original record?

Yes, but it depends on how you want it to work and also on how your file is structured and used.

If each related record will only ever have one parent record in the main table, then you will be able to set up a similar privileges limitation (ie pointing to the same field in the parent table) in the various related tables - ie the formula will be along the lines of:

ParentTable:: AuthorAccount = Get(AccountName)

However if the relationship between the tables is such as to allow more than one parent record for a given portal record, you may wish to either add an AuthorAccount field to the table the portal is based on, or to set up a process which permits access if any of the related parent records were created by the current user. But in that situation, as I said, it really depends on how related records are created (eg can they only be created by the author of the parent record) and how you require it to work, and you've not said much about that. :)

[Jason Goldsmith]

I'm in the process of figuring out privlege sets for the first time. When I set up the privleges as you suggested, several things didn't work. For example, I have a portal that uses dynamic portal sorting (which I just realized you published a paper on). After limiting a non-author to read only, they cannot use the dynamic portal unless the sort field is in a different table. So I had to make a new table with some new relationships. One more thing to think about before building.

Another item that did not work in read-only mode was a script that was necessary for all users to navigate, but changed a field in the process. As I'm writing this I just discovered what the "run script with full access privleges" check box is for. That's cool. Now everything works.