Add column locking to current table locking feature

Suggestion Box
1

Hello,

The new table locking feature is nice and I’ve been using it with page locking + the common hack of creating a read-only column (formula) linked to the ‘real’ writeable column to allow editors to edit some rows directly.

However when a collaborator opens a row in the detail layout, he can still show hidden rows and edit them. I know it should not happen accidentally in principle but sometimes people click everywhere.

For those using tables as a source of truth where creating a sync-table Pack is not an option, it would be really nice to be able to lock columns directly for three reasons:

  • Preventing any editor that sees the page in ‘locked’ state to edit rows of specific columns while allowing them to quickly edit rows that are meant to be edited, for fast entry like in Excel.
  • Not having to create two columns for each column that need a read-only and a read-write functionality.
  • Preventing rare cases of corruption of API-only/internal columns that should always be immutable, like an identifier used as a unique key to synchronize with a database and/or to avoid duplicate rows.

Sometimes in our use cases only one or two columns need to be editable (for notes entry or number/price entry), leading to the duplication of 5-10 columns to apply the read-only ‘hack’.

Here is the suggestion:

  • Add a ‘Lock’ / ‘Unlock’ button in the column dropdown menu, visible only when table locking is active. Edits of locked columns would be done be unlocking the table temporarily or by using the API directly to bypass any locking.

Thanks

2

Would also like this feature!

In the meantime, I’ve been disabling the Hidden column link in the layout editor. It’s not the most foolproof solution, but it curtails 99% of edits to unintended columns.

3

Ah I didn’t know about this, thank you! I tried it and it seems there is no way to access the default layout for locked users.