Calendar App: Glitch with Sharing permissions or am I doing something wrong?

Danielle Schanke

I've built an events calendar in the Calendar App to share with employees inside my company. They should have view-only permissions and not be able to share with anyone outside the company. I have "Sharing" enabled with the appropriate domains. However, viewers are able to EDIT the calendar items when they don't have any permissions for the source sheet. Is this a glitch or did I miss a setting somewhere? Please help.

SofiRuiz

We are running into the same issue this week. Very interesting. Have you reported this to support as a potential Glitch?

Danielle Schanke

Yes, I contacted the Support team to let them know. I feel better that I'm not alone, and that it does seem to be a glitch/bug. I'll post back when I hear from the Support team.

Bassam Khalil

Hi @Danielle Schanke,

Let's go through some troubleshooting steps to ensure that your settings are configured correctly, and we'll explore potential solutions for the problem you're facing.

1: Verify Permissions for the Source Sheet

• Check Sheet Permissions: The first step is to ensure that the source sheet's permissions are set up correctly. Only the sheet owner and admins can change permissions. Make sure that all employees are set to "Viewer" if you only want them to have view-only access. Navigate to the source sheet.
• Click on the "Share" button.
• Verify each employee's permission level.

2: Review Calendar App Sharing Settings

1. Check Calendar Publishing Options:
   • Within the Calendar App, ensure you have not inadvertently enabled editing capabilities for viewers. While the Calendar App itself does not have separate permission settings, the way it displays data from the source sheet can impact viewer interaction.
2. Domain Restrictions:
   • You mentioned enabling sharing with the appropriate domains. Double-check these settings to ensure they're correctly configured to restrict external sharing. This is done at the account level rather than per sheet or app.
   • Navigate to Account Admin settings and review the "Sharing" section for domain restrictions.

3: Confirm App Configuration

• Widget Settings: If you're using a dashboard with a calendar widget to display this information, ensure the widget itself is configured correctly. The permissions for the widget follow the dashboard's permissions, which follow the source sheet's permissions. Review the dashboard sharing settings to ensure they align with your intended access levels.

4: Testing

1. Test with a Test Account: If possible, use a test account with view-only access to see what capabilities it has within the Calendar App. This will help you understand what end users can do.

Danielle Schanke

@Bassam Khalil Thank you for the detailed checklist!

See below for info/questions on the calendar app configuration.

1. Source Sheet Permissions - Permissions are correct and the calendar's viewers do NOT have any permissions to the source sheet.
2. Calendar App Sharing - 1. In the Advanced options on "More Options" options screen, none of the boxes are checked for allow attachments, allow comments, allow new events. I don't see any other options to disable/enable editing. Can you please elaborate? 2. In the Calendar App, I've toggled the "Sharing" function to on and listed my company's primary domain to allow access only to employees who have Smartsheet accounts. I'm a system admin and "Secure External Access" and "Security & Controls" seem to be correct.
3. Dashboard Widget: I'm using the web content widget to link to calendar sharing link. The dashboard is published to allow viewing access by users in our enterprise account only.
4. Testing: I tested with a licensed user in our enterprise account who has no access to the source sheet, reports, dashboards, or calendar. She is able to click on the calendar tiles and EDIT any of the information.

As a workaround, I'm using the calendar "Publish" link, but it disables the filtering capabilities for the viewers, which is not ideal. I hope this is temporary until I can fix the "Sharing" capability to not allow editing. I may need more detailed info on areas #2 and #3 above. I appreciate your help!

Danielle Schanke

@Bassam Khalil I still need help with this issue. Smartsheet support was not able to resolve it. Am I correct in my understanding that sharing a calendar with approved domain users who don't have any permissions to the source sheet will allow them to view the calendar, use and create filters without being able to edit items? If that is how the Calendar app is supposed to work, then there is a bug here. If not, then I may be misunderstanding the capabilities of the sharing feature.