read-only / disabled values

[random]

I have a change management form that has close to 30-40 fields in it.
I need to make sure that only specific people in the management team have
"approve" access to the form once it's been submitted.

I'm using a combinatin of "user roles" and "conditional formatting" to
achieve this.
I've basically built a method in the form so that it looks at your Active
Directory login and associates it with a table in the form that contains the
managers that are allowed to approve and make changes to the form.

I then basically set an expression for "conditional formatting" for each
field in the form that says "if user role is not equal to form approver then
read-only"

Problem is: I have to set this expression for each of the fields
individually. that's 30-40 times I have to repeat the same freakin
expression. Im going nuts, and my carpal is not taking well to this apparent
lack of functionality. Not to mention forms im designing that are going to
have more fields than that.

My question is:

1. is there a better way to do this?

2. is there a way to set some global expression that would show up in the of
conditional formatting expressions so that all I have to do is click and
choose, rather than have to create the expression from scratch for each field
individually?

3. is there a way to set this expression globally over the entire form with
only one expression?

please help! it's almost impossible to do this, especially when a change has
to be to add another or different type of expression for the read-only/hidden
flag.

 

[Scott L. Heim [MSFT]]

Hi,

Unfortunately there are not a lot of options in regard to this. One option
that may help though: if you have "groups" of fields that need to be set to
"read only" you may be able to add a "section" control to your form, place
those controls in the section and then simply use conditional formatting on
the section.

This is a highly requested feature that we are looking into for a future
version of InfoPath.

I hope this helps!

Scott L. Heim
Microsoft Developer Support

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[random]

Hi Scott...

As always, thanks for your time.

I tried using a section, but conditional formatting options for a section
only provides the ability to hide the section. there is no read-only value
available for sections.

this would be great though if it were possible. or if able to do it for an
entire view.

i guess at this point, im just glad to see you guys recognize the usefulness
of this feature. i'll be waiting

 

[Scott L. Heim [MSFT]]

You are correct and that was my error - my apologies to all.

Best regards,

Scott L. Heim
Microsoft Developer Support

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Sue]

Would you be willing to share your form? I need to create a form for our
change management process. I have created a list, and was getting ready to
create a form when I found your article. The biggest problem I'm having is
getting the "approve section" going just like you suggested.