There use to be a feature for Groups in forms that seems to be missing now for new fields.
When creating a form, you can create a group and add fields to that group.
When you selected the Group, there was a permissions option for that Group where you can choose the fields to be editable or view-only.
It appears that option is no longer available.
This was incredibly useful for me. I was able to prefill fields in that group and it would prevent the end user from removing my prefilled option. This was really great when I didn't want to expose information in those fields to end user. I could prefill it and they could not edit it. But it was at least displayed there for them so they know what they were filling things out for.
If this feature is gone, is there another way to prevent end users from changing prefilled fields in forms
TIA!
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Airtable’s forms offer that option on a field- by-field basis… but not at the group level.
In Fillout, you can add a “display text” object to your form, then type the @ symbol, and you can choose any of your form fields or Airtable fields to display in a read-only (view-only state) on your form.
You can add as many fields as you want to each display text object, so it’s the equivalent of making an entire group of objects read-only,
Fillout is 100% free, and it offers hundreds of features that Airtable’s native forms don’t offer, including the ability to display lookup fields on a form, create new linked records on a form, collect signatures on forms, perform math on forms, and even update Airtable records using a form — so you might not even need to worry about prefilling at all.
I show how to use a few of the advanced features of Fillout on these 2 Airtable podcast episodes:
A potential workaround would be creating a new Long Text field and then prefilling that with the relevant information instead? That way they can make any edits to that field they want but it wouldn’t matter to you, and every time they opened a new link it’d prefill with the new data
Bit clunky, but would do what you need if you didn’t want to use another app I think
Hi @mbrinkley,
You can still create form groups, but giving an entire form group the same permissions for their fields is not an airtable feature, but you can still definitely do what you were referring on a field by field basis. In the settings of each field you can have a default value and also have that field not be editable by a user. Here is a screenshot of an example:
Just make sure that you are creating your forms using Airtable’s new forms and not their legacy form version. The new forms will have a lot more customizations than their older form type, which you can still use if needed. The Airtable’s UX for accessing the 2 versions of forms is a bit clunky, if you want the new forms you should click on continue or if you want their legacy form views then click on “Create a form view”
Hope this helps!
Airtable’s forms offer that option on a field- by-field basis… but not at the group level.
Thanks for the options, @ScottWorld! Fillout has been on my mind. Might be time to finally check it out.
One thing though. AirTable forms did offer this at the group level. I attached a screen shot of one of my older forms that I created. I have the Work Order field in a group on the form. When you select the group there is the option for Permissions on the properties. You can see that I have it set to View-Only. This was great. I was able to prefill the field in the form from a formula field in my table and with the group set to View-Only you could not remove the prefilled selection and you cannot select a new one. Basically the end user was locked out of making changes.
Now when I select the group and switch it to Editable that entire option goes away. It is also not there when I create new Form.
Not sure if this was a bug or a removed feature. Either way this breaks my workflow for my end users.
A potential workaround would be creating a new Long Text field and then prefilling that with the relevant information instead? That way they can make any edits to that field they want but it wouldn’t matter to you, and every time they opened a new link it’d prefill with the new data
Bit clunky, but would do what you need if you didn’t want to use another app I think
@TheTimeSavingCo Thanks for the suggestion! I can probably do that. I can hide the linked fields in my prefill URL and just the text in there.
Cheers!
Hi @mbrinkley,
You can still create form groups, but giving an entire form group the same permissions for their fields is not an airtable feature, but you can still definitely do what you were referring on a field by field basis. In the settings of each field you can have a default value and also have that field not be editable by a user. Here is a screenshot of an example:
Just make sure that you are creating your forms using Airtable’s new forms and not their legacy form version. The new forms will have a lot more customizations than their older form type, which you can still use if needed. The Airtable’s UX for accessing the 2 versions of forms is a bit clunky, if you want the new forms you should click on continue or if you want their legacy form views then click on “Create a form view”
Hope this helps!
Hey @airvues Thanks for looking into this! If you see my reply to @ScottWorld you can see that at one point you can set View-Only or Editable permissions to groups in Form.
No Idea why its gone now.
I took a look at your option of Setting the Default and then turning off the Option to allow users to edit the field. Interestingly, you have to set a Default in order to get the the option to turn off allow users to edit the field.
But this is breaking my prefill formula. I create a link in my table that will prefill the Work Order when you open the form with the link. I set a default to that field but when I click on the link, the default is listed but not the prefill work order that I want.
It is also inconsistently working. If I create a Form page in my interface with a default and the option off, the prefill does not populate the field and the end user is unable to edit the field in the form. When I use the Form in the Form Builder, the prefill does not work AND the user can still manually edit the field.
Neither of those are desirable outcomes. Though I might be doing something wrong.
Hi @mbrinkley,
Thanks for the additional context and the screenshots. I’ll be honest that I dont remember actually seeing the form groups have that option of view only or editable. I’ve checked this in a legacy pro account, new business account and enterprise account and I can’t seem to find that feature anywhere. I know that the interface record details has that exact feature, so it could be possible that at some point forms and record details shared that same feature, but then Airtable might have changed that for forms. By any chance do you know when you were able to do this?
I understand your specific use case where you create form urls with your prefills automatically from a formula. I’ve utilized this a lot but always had that downside that users could always make changes to them. You somehow stumbled upon this gap in time where Airtable used the same permissions level they use in their record details in their forms. My guess is that Airtable purposely removed this feature because it lets users do a lot more with forms to the point that it extends the need to get more accounts to do work within interfaces. Having this functionality, specifically with the prefill url feature, it does open up a lot of personalization to forms that can really come in handy and it somewhat could avoid the need for a user to get access to an interface. I would recommend you reach out to Airtable support to get an official answer of the change.
As for the meantime, I think your best bet is to use the solution that @TheTimeSavingCo recommended.
This feature definitely existed a few weeks ago. I still have a form that has the Permissions option, but when I try to create a new form, Groups no longer have the feature. I wish they did so I could prefill more forms based on a record. Here’s an example of what it looks like for my old form.
Airtable team, if you see this pleaaase bring this feature back!
Form Editor View
Live Form View (Pre-filled/Read-Only)
___ Miranda
By any chance do you know when you were able to do this?
My guess is that Airtable purposely removed this feature because it lets users do a lot more with forms to the point that it extends the need to get more accounts to do work within interfaces. Having this functionality, specifically with the prefill url feature, it does open up a lot of personalization to forms that can really come in handy and it somewhat could avoid the need for a user to get access to an interface.
I think its been a few weeks since this change happened.
I suspect you are right. Removing this function feels like a push to get people using portals or get more licenses.
This feature definitely existed a few weeks ago. I still have a form that has the Permissions option, but when I try to create a new form, Groups no longer have the feature. I wish they did so I could prefill more forms based on a record. Here’s an example of what it looks like for my old form.
Airtable team, if you see this pleaaase bring this feature back!
Form Editor View
Live Form View (Pre-filled/Read-Only)
___ Miranda
From what I have been testing, this option still exists for any form previously created. But new forms and even new groups on older forms, this option is now gone.
Or if you change the group from View-Only to Editable, the option also goes away.
Seems intended to force people to phase out its usage.
I am seeing the same thing as @mbrinkley. I have permissions at the group level on a form I created about a month ago and do not have it in a new form. I thought it was new and it’s an amazing feature to have with prefilled forms.
