Using business process definitions to manipulate read-only fields

Question

Hi all, 
 I have a status field that I want to be read-only (so users can't manipulate it) and have the value changed by business process definitions only. This doesn't seem to be possible. Business process definitions are denied the ability to manipulate fields if they're read only. I cannot understand the reason for this. 
 Any advice much appreciated. 
 Regards, 
 Dave.

Dave Hodgman · Accepted Answer

Hi Dave Hodgman , 
 One way you could work around this is have two fields created on the module: 
 
 Source field
 
 This field would not be made available on any layouts or be available for mass update or import so that only BPM can make changes to it

Display-only field
 
 This field would have a sugar logic formula that consists only of the variable for the source field (e.g. $source_field) 
 This field would be added to the layout(s) for your users to see. Sugar Logic fields are natively read-only since they are driven by calculation

With that setup, you could have BPM make the changes as you see fit and users wouldn't know any difference since the field they see is mirroring the source field value. 
 Kind regards, 
 Chris

Dave Hodgman · Answer

Hi Dave, I've made an experiment - set up a new Role and named it ReadOnlyRole, then specified the custom field Account Status as "Read Only" for that role and assigned ReadOnlyUser to that role. Then I've designed a Process Definition that sets Account Status to Processed when Account Type is set to Customer Now, suppose I log in as ReadOnlyUser and edit the Account record - set Type to Customer. In that case, on record save the Status field is updated automatically -with Process - despite the fact that the Status is non-editable for the ReadOnlyUser user in the UI:

Is that what you are looking for?

Dave Hodgman · Answer

You would be able to set the readonly at the viewdefs layer only, this way SugarBPM will be able to manipulate it.