External Ability to Comment on a Published Report

Allison Rickert

Hi! One of our clients is asking to have the ability to make comments within a published timeline report. It appears I'm only able to share the published link to the report as "read-only," though I am an admin (see attached). Is there any way to share the report so that external users can comment?

screen-shot-2022-05-04-at-11-31-01-am.png

Genevieve P.

Hi @Allison Rickert

There currently isn't a way to Publish a Report and allow for Comments. (See: Publish a Sheet, Report, or Dashboard)

You would want to directly share the Source Sheet with this collaborator with Commenter permissions, then share the actual Report in Smartsheet with Commenter permissions as well, versus using a Published link.

If you're on a Business or Enterprise plan, this shared collaborator doesn't have to be a part of your account or licensed in order to add comments to Smartsheet items. (See Sharing Permission Table)

Cheers,

Genevieve

Allison Rickert

Genevieve P.

Hi @Allison Rickert

You would need to share the underlying sheet in order for anyone shared to the Report to see the data being pulled through. You could share the Report without the sheet, but then it would appear as blank for that user because they're not allowed to see the source. (See: Share or Publish Your Report)

Publishing enables viewers to see the Report without needing to be shared to the underlying sheet, but then they cannot have any sort of Editor access, including Commenter permissions.

The way you share your data will depend on what's more important - do you need them to edit data, or do you want to hide data in the sheet?

Other alternatives would be to put the Report in a Workapp if you have access to Workapps. This would allow your users to edit data in a Report without needing to be shared to the sheet. Or, if your plan has access to it, you could create a filtered view in Dynamic View.

Cheers,

Genevieve

Genevieve P.

Hi @Allison Rickert

There currently isn't a way to Publish a Report and allow for Comments. (See: Publish a Sheet, Report, or Dashboard)

You would want to directly share the Source Sheet with this collaborator with Commenter permissions, then share the actual Report in Smartsheet with Commenter permissions as well, versus using a Published link.

If you're on a Business or Enterprise plan, this shared collaborator doesn't have to be a part of your account or licensed in order to add comments to Smartsheet items. (See Sharing Permission Table)

Cheers,

Genevieve

Allison Rickert

Genevieve P.

Hi @Allison Rickert

You would need to share the underlying sheet in order for anyone shared to the Report to see the data being pulled through. You could share the Report without the sheet, but then it would appear as blank for that user because they're not allowed to see the source. (See: Share or Publish Your Report)

Publishing enables viewers to see the Report without needing to be shared to the underlying sheet, but then they cannot have any sort of Editor access, including Commenter permissions.

The way you share your data will depend on what's more important - do you need them to edit data, or do you want to hide data in the sheet?

Other alternatives would be to put the Report in a Workapp if you have access to Workapps. This would allow your users to edit data in a Report without needing to be shared to the sheet. Or, if your plan has access to it, you could create a filtered view in Dynamic View.

Cheers,

Genevieve

kim.parker79706

What is the purpose of a Commenter role, if it is not to comment on a sheet they don't have access to? We have a workflow set up for expense approvals. An approver may have a question for the requester, which I want them to be able to do an @mention in the comments and get the response back in the comment section. However, they cannot respond unless I share the sheet with them. I cannot share the sheet with all the employees because there is information in there that they cannot see. The sheet is only shared with the approvers.

I simply want them to answer the question and have record of it in the sheet. What are my options?

Andrée Starå

Hi @kim.parker79706

I hope you're well and safe!

I'd recommend using the Update Request feature instead.

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

✅Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please support the Community by marking it Insightful/Vote Up or/and as the accepted answer. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

kim.parker79706

The reason we didn't go the update request route is because it allows them to change any of the original data in the expense request and we do not want them to be able to do that because prior managers have already approved it. Is there a way to turn that off and only allow them to write a comment?

Also, it doesn't appear to capture the question I put in the update request for them to answer in the comments, it only shows their response back to us? Am I missing something?

Thanks for your help with this.

Kim