Read-only records

[MarkS17]

Hello all,

I'm wondering if it's possible to indicate certain records in a table as read-only. The idea is that once these records have been validated they should not be modifiable (except perhaps through a special procedure). It's for accountancy records that have been transferred to an external database and so should no longer be modifiable.

Any tips or tricks anyone to achieve this?

Thanks,

Mark

[Jon_Stephenson]

Just use field permissions?

[ScottWorld]

Unfortunately, disabling the editing of rows based on criteria in that row is not possible in Airtable. But you might be able to use some other clever workarounds that incorporate what @Jon_Stephenson mentioned above.

Alternatively, what you're looking to do might already be a native, built-in feature of On2Air Forms, which means that you would be able to easily do what you want... but @Hannah_Wiginton would know for sure.

[kuovonne]

If someone has direct edit access to a base, you cannot prevent them from editing specific records. You can prevent editing of specific fields, but those permissions apply to the entire field for all records, not just some records. 

However, you can provide interface only access. Then use different interface elements and pages to show editable records versus records that you do not want edited. You can control which elements are editable. 

[ScottWorld]

Great workaround from @kuovonne!

[MarkS17]

Thanks all for your replies, I'll set up view interfaces. But is it possible to put password access on a table even for the base owner? This would be an additional security to avoid 'accidental' record changing.

Thanks again,

Mark

[ScottWorld]

No, that’s not possible. Airtable is more of a low-end database, but have you considered switching to a genuinely professional, enterprise-grade, relational database system like FileMaker? All of the features that you’ve been asking about are already natively built into FileMaker as a part of the product. I was a Certified FileMaker Developer for 30 years. Feel free to contact me through my website if you’d like me to setup a chat between you and some FileMaker developers.

[Hannah_Wiginton]

Hey Mark,

You've been given a few helpful answers. If interested, On2Air Forms lets you create dashboards that are filtered by person, by view, by field data, etc. So you can really set granular permissions depending on what data you want someone to be able to edit.

on2air.com/forms

Glad to help you get set up if that interests you.

[MarkS17]

Thanks again all for your solutions. I'll stick within AirTable for now and brief users about potential issues.

I note for FileMaker and On2Air, thank you.

Mark