Custom Field Management Restrictions

I have a team of about 15 project managers that have to be able to use Custom Fields for their project tracking and reporting. However, in order to allow them to use the field they also have the ability to create and edit. With such a large group it is inevitable that someone accidentally messes up the properties of a field or accidentally creates a duplicate field. The impact is they effect the entire account. Can restrictions be added so that only a few can create/edit but others can just 'use' the fields?

Find more posts tagged with

Gathering votes

Status: Gathering votes

Comments

Cameron Korb

I believe this is already a feature, but it's hard to find.

Try this:

New "Custom Fields" pop-up window:

New "Edit Custom Field" pop-up window:

I hope this helps!

Joel Gold

Cameron Korb,

Michelle Flemming is that if I am to "share" a custom field with a specified user, they are automatically given the right to edit that custom field's options, which is not always wanted.

For example if I have a custom field with 3 Dropdown options, if I share the field with a user to allow them to input those 3 options they are automatically given the right to add a 4th option (or delete one of the existing 3 options), we need more permission control of custom field editing.

I'd like to give my users the ability to view and input predefined custom field inputs without letting them edit the list of options.

Michelle Flemming

@Cameron Korb - Those steps allow me to share the ability to use it....but as Joel states...it by default allows users to edit the field also. We have already had one issue where a new user 'experimented' and completely messed up the field. Would like to allow usage without edit capability.

Lisa Lemmons

This is exactly what we're looking for. We've found ourselves in a bit of a mess having left custom fields open to all users to create/edit, leaving us with duplicate custom fields (e.g. client name) making it difficult to run enterprise-level reports. We'd like to lock things down so that only a subset of users can create new custom fields while another subset of users can only add or edit existing custom fields.

Elizaveta Bogdanova

Hey everyone, thank you for the feedback!

Have you tried using Access Roles for this? "Limited" and "Read Only" roles don't allow to edit task, project, and folder custom fields. Please let me know if that helps!

Michelle Flemming

Lisa,

I have experimented with that access and managed to shut down the ability for the PM to edit their projects. Are you aware of a way that we can limit ONLY the custom field access? I still need the PMs to be able to edit their tasks, projects, and folders.

Lisa Lemmons

We've experimented with access roles too but couldn't find a setting that's specific enough to meet our needs. We need a way to allow a set of users to add an existing custom field to their folder/project without allowing them to create new custom fields. Is that possible?

Elizaveta Bogdanova

@Michelle Flemming @Lisa Lemmons On Enterprise subscription, it is possible to create your own Access Roles like described here. So it should be possible to set up a role that will only be able to edit a task/folder/project Custom Fields and nothing else.

mdr

Lisa Lemmons

Thanks Lisa. Is there a way to create an Access Role for users to be able to add existing custom fields to their projects but not create new ones?

mdr

Elizaveta Bogdanova

Hey again, @Lisa Lemmons! Yes, it's possible. Enable the right to edit folder/project custom fields, and don't enable the right to add/remove custom fields, and users will only be able to add existing custom fields and not create new fields.

Hope it helps!

mdr

Adrian Polden

Hi Lisa - we have many Custom Fields we need our teams to edit every hour of every day.

So we need a way to LOCK only those custom columns we choose - so only the SPACE admin can edit them.

This would remove the need for all the 'work-around' schemes which have been suggested - and I assume would be very easily to program.

With around 120 users predicted (currently ~70) we really need this feature.

Please up-vote...

Juan Muttoni

Hello @Adrian Polden, thank you for upvoting this suggestion and for sharing your use case with us. Currently, it is possible to limit the ability to edit Space custom fields only to Space admins. You can find the instructions on how to do this here.

You can 'block' the relevant custom fields by setting them as Space fields and by adding them to the relevant Space. This way, only Space admins will be able to change their settings.

At the same time, non-Space admins will be able to create new custom fields or edit account custom fields that you are being used in the same Space.

These settings should allow you to achieve what you described in your comment. In case you have any additional questions, please let me know.

Adrian Polden

Hi Juan...

I am afraid this does not work for us...

I have set-up our system using one Space as a central data repository "A2 Central Planning" (which is read-only to all users) then from this space I have then linked the various projects to the various teams who need to contribute - granting them Read/Write access via their specific Space... this means the Custom Field Columns which hold our Budget Values (Budget Financial Year End or BFYE) columns are 'safe' from tampering within the "A2 Central Planning" space... but become accessible via the various team spaces. If I make the BFYE Custom Field Columns as 'A2 Space fields' they cannot be seen from the various team spaces so this does not seem to work...

Hoping you have another solution...??

Regards - Adrian

Elizaveta Bogdanova

Hi @Adrian Polden, thank you for sharing more info on your use case!

Our team is currently planning to research the possibility of introducing the ability to lock different elements in Wrike. We'll keep you posted here in the Community 👍

Adrian Polden

Thanks for your feedback Lisa....

I acknowledge the solution is more complex than just "inserting a button" but I also hope the team can resolve this quickly for us as using the Central Database concept is definitely working a treat for us.

Best Regards

Adrian

Juan Muttoni

Hi @Adrian Polden, thank you for your reply! Please rest assured that if we are informed of any changes we will share the updates with you and the Community.

In the meantime, if you have any additional questions, please let me know.

Adrian Polden

Not very reassuring Juan... especially as the issue has been around for years.

I really would prefer some action - I realise we are but small user/client but this feature would add significant kudos to Wrike in the face of your competitors who do offer this feature. A small issue to rectify if Wrike choose to focus on it.

Largely because of the way we have set Wrike up... I would have chosen to rectify this well ahead of some of the more cosmetic changes you have made.

Juan Muttoni

Hi @Adrian Polden, thank you for the follow-up. I understand it can be frustrating not to see this suggestion being implemented. Our Product Team is constantly working on improving our platform, and feedback remains one of the most valuable sources of inspiration.

Unfortunately, not all suggestions can be prioritized as soon as we'd like. As Lisa mentioned, our team is researching the possibility of locking elements in Wrike. We will share more details with you and the Community once we are informed about them 👍

I'm sorry to hear you haven't perceived the latest innovations in Wrike as essential as we'd like. Please, feel free to check our Weekly Release Notes to discover the constant enhancements implemented in Wrike.

Should you have any other questions, we are here to help. Thank you!

Sharon Arriaga

upvoting this one

Adrian Polden

Thx for you VOTE @Sharon Arriaga... this is still mission critical to us and has received ZERO attention from the WRIKE development team (note the reply from JUAN above is from June last year) - this request has been around since 2017 in some form and WRIKE keep offering work-arounds that simply don't work in our environment...!!!!!! My local customer team are helpless to influence any change and I am increasingly annoyed that the so called Development Team can find resources to release "nice to have" features whilst this gets ignored.
WE NEED AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO UP-VOTE THIS AGAIN...!!!!!!!

Amanda Mecutchen

Has any progress been made on this? I see that it looks as though there is an ability to lock other space users to just see the fields, but they still have access to the field settings where they could easily just add themselves to the editing list. Am I doing something wrong or is this how the system is set up?

Basudha Sakshyarika

Hi @Amanda Mecutchen! Welcome to the Wrike community! 🎉

To control who can create or change space custom fields or settings, go to the Space settings - > Custom fields. With the Manage Permissions option in the upper right corner, a Space admin can choose whether all space users or only space admins are allowed to make changes. That should help forbid users to change settings of Custom Fields. You can also find the instructions on how to do this here. Hope this helps! 😊

Sara Wood

This issue is affecting our organization. We have a number of custom fields where the available values in those fields need to be restricted for changes. For example, we have a list of states. We do not want anyone to edit the list of states. We want users to be able to add the state from the list to an item. We have to choose between letting people use the field which means they can also edit options, or restricting the use of the field which makes it worthless.

This is fast becoming a governance issue for us as an organization. Had this feature been more clear to us, it would have drastically impacted our evaluation of Wrike's custom options. "Custom" options without adequate governance spiral out of control and make the custom fields unusable.