SharePoint Registration Form - How to Hide Fields

Question

I created a basic registration form using a SharePoint 2007 custom list where users complete fields on the form. I created an 'Approver' field that I'm trying to hide from customers so that only the form's approver will edit that field (approve the request - Customers tend to approve their own request). How can I hide this approval field so it can be edited by the approver only?

Attempted Solutions: 1. I set the content type for that approval column to 'hidden'. How would I access the URL to the hidden approval field so the approver can access the field and update it for that specific item? The hidden field is not visible if I click 'Edit Item'. Did I miss something with the hidden content type so that I would see the column on the edit page? 2. I customized newform.aspx in designer by removing the hidden approval field and it worked. But 'Attach File' doesn't work when the new form is customized. It spews out an errors.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

May be create a custom field control (how?) that will check the current users role agains the site before choosing to display the field.

This is pretty hard core customisation compared to creating lists though.

Answer 2

Thanks Nat for the response but that is a little too hard core for me. I'm looking more for the click of a button or two. Unfortunately I'm not a coder at all.

Answer 3

Why not just use the Approval workflow with this list? Users would be able to create approval requests, which would automatically trigger the Approval workflow, which would create a task and send an e-mail for the approver to approve the request. Once it's approved - the status of the request would change to approved. The approver can also add a comment on the approval form, if needed.

Answer 4

The boss would like for the person who completes the form to be able to select from a list of approximately 30 approvers (depending on the department the requester is in) and that one approver must get the email request with all the details of the item (not an email that only includes a link to the task as the approval workflow does). With the approval workflow, I can only enter 1 user or a group where all of the members of that group get the email - not just the one person that needs to approve it. If I could add a variable to the workflow 'Approver' box which holds the person selected in the registration form, that would solve my problem but I don't think that is an option. If I'm missing something, please let me know.

Answer 5

Have a look at the SPListDisplaySettings component from codeplex. Adding this solution will allow you to specify how to show the fields in display, new and edit mode based on SharePoint users and groups.