Overview
When designing a Form, there may be instances where you need to constrain the value entered into a Field and prevent data entry users from making further changes. In such cases, you can set the Field as Read-only, effectively restricting any further edits.
Behavior
A Field that is set as Read-only prevents all users from changing the original value stored in that Field. The value stored in Fields set as Read-only cannot be modified at any time, including when Records are first added as well as when edits are made to Records. To generate the original value to be stored in a Read-only field, you can use the Default value property.
When a Field is set to Read-only, changes are prevented when using the Data Entry Form and the Importer feature.
Supported Field types
- Barcode
- Date
- Fortnight
- Geographic Point
- Month
- Multi-Line Text
- Multiple Selection
- Reference
- Quantity
- Single Selection
- Text
- User
- Week
Setting a Field as Read-only
To set a Field as Read-only, follow these steps:
- Navigate to the Form you wish to add a Read-only Field to.
- Click “Form settings.”
- Either add a Field, or click on an already existing Field you want to set as Read-only.
- In the Field Card editor, check the box next to "Read-only."
- Click "Done" to save the changes.
- Click "Save" to save the Form.
Examples
Preventing changes to the date of report submission
Say you are collecting periodic reports from partners and you require reports to be submitted by a certain deadline. You can use the Read-only Field property to effectively restrict the date a report was submitted, ensuring the date remains correct over time.
You can do this by adding a Date field, for example submissionDate, with a default value Formula of TODAY() to automatically populate the current date when adding a new Record. You would then set this Field as Read-only to prevent partners from modifying the submission date.
This way, the value of the Date of submission Field always reflects the actual date of submission. You would then be able to confidently identify which reports were submitted late.