Record by record Access

[smudge11]

I have a job tracking database for our small graphic design studio. I have created a checkbox field that when checked should lock the record to make it uneditable for users with the standard password. I am seeing some strange behavior where theis seems to work when I first engage it, but later or the next day, "unlocked" records are unmodifiable.Any idaes on how to straighten this out? There are only 3 of us so the database is hosted by the first user, not through FMP server. Would a change in host have an effect on this action? I wouldn't think so, but I'm at a loss as to why the behavior seems to lock up all records.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

quote:

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Originally posted by smudge11:

I have a job tracking database for our small graphic design studio. I have created a checkbox field that when checked should lock the record to make it uneditable for users with the standard password. I am seeing some strange behavior where theis seems to work when I first engage it, but later or the next day, "unlocked" records are unmodifiable.Any idaes on how to straighten this out? There are only 3 of us so the database is hosted by the first user, not through FMP server. Would a change in host have an effect on this action? I wouldn't think so, but I'm at a loss as to why the behavior seems to lock up all records.

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Well, if you check it, what prevents someone else from unchecking it? You need to make that field read only for users with the stnadard password.

HTH

Old Advance Man

[smudge11]

The way I have it set up, once you check the box the record should be locked (Read only) to users with the standard password. All of us use the standard password to do everyday work, with maintenance done as necessary with the admin password. The problem is that records are uneditable even when the box is NOT checked. I'm trying to determine why that is.

[Vaughan]

What exactly is the technique you are using to lock the records?

[smudge11]

CaptKurt wrote:

"Are any of these fields Globals? Does this affect the Host user, the Guest users or both? Does it have an effect when the files are opened without any guests?"

None of the fields are global. It now seems to work properly on the host computer, but guests are still not able to edit "Unlocked" records.

[smudge11]

I have a field called "Lock" with a check box value list on each record. The only value is "Locked". Record access is set to limited with the formula "Lock != Locked". If there is a better way to do this, I would much appreciate any suggestions.

[dbman]

I'll share what just worked for me. I was looking to secure each record and your intial message got me headed in the right direction. Since I had not seen norunderstood the formula you posted (please let me know what "!= " stands for since I may have a use for it later) I tried two appraoches and the second one is successful.

Background: The DB is for reconciling Petty Cash within the office (about $1,000 per month, 30-40 transactions) The coin and currency accounting fields are part of the parent and the transactions for refunds are created through a portal. The Approval field is for management and read only to support staff. The field is a value list "JN" and "MCT", button style. After staff reconcils a day of transactions, a manager will select his intial which triggers a date and time stamp with hopes of locking the record from future changes. It works now.

First attempt: I went to define Edit Records "Limited" in password access dialog box. I tried "If (Approved = "JN" or "MCT", 0, 1). It worked fine on my workstation in a sample DB. After applying it to the DB hosted on the server it would not acknowledge the formula and would not lock for the support staff password.

Second Attempt: Used the following, "If(Is Empty(Approval), 1, "") . This locks the parent fields in the "approved" record but not the portal records. I'll try applying the formula to the portal records DB in the next day or two and see if selecting the Approval choice will trigger a lookup for a field in each portal record to engage the lock. I tried support staff's password on other workstations and the record lock works on the parent fields. I'm sorry this seems long but I haven't offered suggestions before and I did not want to miss any details. Hope it applys.

Mike T