Make fields read-only and route the form to appropriate person

Nitin Yadav

Hello,

I have set up a form with multiple fields and based on the value of a field, the form displays a set of fields. I am trying to see if there is an option to make such fields read-only depends on what value is selected?

For example, I have a selection field called 'Define yourself' with two values 'Business' and 'IT'. If the login person selects 'Busines', it shows up a set of fields to be filled by a business person. Once the business person submits the form, the form should route to someone in IT, and upon selecting 'IT' value in the 'Define yourself' field, the form should show certain fields filled by business person in read-only mode as information to IT person along with a few more fields to be filled by IT person. Once the IT person filled a set of fields from his/her fields, the form should update the same row on the sheet so that data is captured in one row.

I have setup a conditional formula and can show certain fields based on the selection field but got stuck after that.

Please suggest if there is an option in SmartSheet to achieve the above.

Thanks in advance!

Nitin

Genevieve P.

Hi @Nitin Yadav

Yes exactly! That's exactly what an Update Request would do - it sends row information in an email to a specific person (who doesn't have to be shared to the sheet).

This email then asks them to update the row, which is a form they open directly from their email. You can specify what fields in the form are read-only and what fields they can make changes to. Then when submit the new information, it will update that same, original row in the sheet. This IT person doesn't have to be shared to the sheet in order to fill out the Update Request form and fill in the rest of the fields that were missing from the first form submission.

If you want to test out what this looks like, you can manually send yourself an Update Request from any row by selecting this from the Row Menu:

I would suggest watching the video and reading through the more detailed explanation on Update Requests in these articles:

• Manually Send an Update Request
• Automatically Request Updates on Tasks
• Automation webinar series

Hope this helps clarify how an Update Request works!

Cheers,

Genevieve

Genevieve P.

Hi @Nitin Yadav

It sounds like after the initial form submission you actually want to set up an automatic Update Request for the IT person to fill out (instead of a second form which would create a second row).

See this article: Automatically Request Updates on Tasks.

In your workflow, you'd want to set up the trigger to be when rows are added, and have it be when the "Define yourself" column is set to "Business".

The person in IT will receive an email with an Update Request form showing them the specific fields you want them to fill out from that same row. If you lock all the columns that have to do with Business in the sheet then these fields will show up as "read only" in the Update Request form.

I suppose the tricky bit is to identify who in IT needs to receive this email - do you have a way of defining this? If you have a Contact List Column set in your sheet with different IT contacts to select, you can have the workflow send to whoever is in that cell. In this instance you'd want the trigger to be when a row is updated to have a contact in that cell. Does that make sense?

Let me know if this will work for you or if you would like to see some screen capture examples after reviewing the Help Article above.

Cheers!

Genevieve

Nitin Yadav

Hi Genevieve,

Thanks for the response. You taught me something else! What I was looking for to reroute the form not to request updates directly on the sheet. My apology if my previous note was not clear enough.

Let me put an example differently for better understanding.

A business person wants to submit a new request using the In-Take request form. This person supposed to see and fill out only certain fields meant to be filled by the business only and submits the form. I understood that at this point in time, a row has been inserted into the sheet with the data filled in the form. Now, I am hoping that upon submission by a business person, the same form can be re-routed to an IT person to review/analyze information. At this point in time, the IT person should see fields filled by the business person in read-only mode and see another set of fields in the form to fill out after review/analysis and submits the form. With this action by the IT person, the form should update the same row in the sheet to track everything related to that new request.

This is something standard process I have seen in many organizations and trying to see if I can achieve the same using the SmartSheet form without giving access to the actual sheet which would be maintained by a specific group.

Thanks for the kind review and guidance.

Nitin

Genevieve P.

Hi @Nitin Yadav

Yes exactly! That's exactly what an Update Request would do - it sends row information in an email to a specific person (who doesn't have to be shared to the sheet).

This email then asks them to update the row, which is a form they open directly from their email. You can specify what fields in the form are read-only and what fields they can make changes to. Then when submit the new information, it will update that same, original row in the sheet. This IT person doesn't have to be shared to the sheet in order to fill out the Update Request form and fill in the rest of the fields that were missing from the first form submission.

If you want to test out what this looks like, you can manually send yourself an Update Request from any row by selecting this from the Row Menu:

I would suggest watching the video and reading through the more detailed explanation on Update Requests in these articles:

• Manually Send an Update Request
• Automatically Request Updates on Tasks
• Automation webinar series

Hope this helps clarify how an Update Request works!

Cheers,

Genevieve

Nitin Yadav

Hi Genevieve,

Thank you much for the detailed information. This is helpful. I will go through the videos and do a test.

Regards,

Nitin