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Make a Step View Only

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This article is considered appropriate for administrators or workspace users with an advanced level of knowledge about submission portals. If you are a beginner, we recommend reading the following article first:

If the Step to be made View Only is a Listing Step, we recommend first reading:

For more information about suggested learning paths, see Introduction to Submission Portals: START HERE.

 

Contents

 

Overview

The Submission Portal contains a configuration setting to make a step View Only for a portal user. This means that the portal user will be able to access a Step in the submission portal and can see the fields on the corresponding form, as well as any data that has been entered by administrators, but will be unable to change any information or enter in new responses. In other words, the form will be viewable in the submission portal, but not editable by the portal user.

This article will explain why a step may be set up to be View Only to a portal user, show where the configuration settings are that will make the Step View Only, and explain how to change this setting.

 

The Purpose of Making a Step View Only

While a submission portal is usually a vehicle for applicants to submit information about themselves (and/or their project or organization) to program administrators, in some cases, it can also be a way for administrators to convey specific and individualized information to the portal users. In this scenario, an administrator can create a form record in the Zengine workspace, fill out the fields, and save the record. This information is then displayed to the portal user when they access that Step in the submission portal.

In such a situation, administrators likely do not want a portal user to change the information that has been entered. Changing a Step page to be viewable but not editable by the portal user is a good solution.

A typical example can occur during the awarding process of a program. Many programs will customize award amounts, project names, and/or start and end dates, for example, and want to convey this information to the awardee in the program’s submission portal. However, the awardee must also submit information at this point to accept their award.

A common solution to this requirement is as follows:

  • In the program workflow, create an Awarded Stage with two Steps:
    • Award Details, which contains details about an applicant’s award that will be filled out by the administrator.
    • Award Acceptance, which contains questions for an applicant to complete and submit to accept their award.

The Award Details form record (linked to the applicant’s Primary form) will be completed by the administrator before the applicant is notified of their award and asked to log into the submission portal. The corresponding Step will be set to View Only so that the applicant can view this award information, but cannot change any details about the award. 

The Award Acceptance form is created and filled out when the applicant accesses the Awarded Stage in the submission portal. It collects the information submitted by the applicant and stores it in Zengine for administrator review.

Similar situations can exist with other forms/Steps, though this will depend on the requirements of the program. 

If there is a need to make certain fields View Only instead of a whole form, this can be done on the Details tab of the Step Settings page. See Showing or Hiding Fields for a Step in the Submission Portal to learn about that feature.

 

--- IMPORTANT ---

A Primary Step (a Step associated with the Primary form) cannot be made View Only.

 

Where to Find the View Only Step Setting

In the Submission Portal Settings, the option to configure a Step as editable or View Only can be found on the Form Pages tab of the Step Settings page for the specific Step to be configured. 

To find the View Only setting:

  1. Logged into a program as an administrator, navigate to the Settings & Tools section by selecting the cog wheel icon in the top navigation bar.
  2. Select the Submission Portal tile from the Plugin Settings section.
  3. Select the Edit button to the appropriate submission portal.

  1. In the Portal Sections pane on the left side of the screen, select the link for the desired Step that will be View Only to portal users. (Steps are associated with a Stage, and are shown on the Portal Sections pane as indented further to the right.)  Multiple Steps are highlighted in the screenshot below to show there may be more than one to choose from.

  1. Selecting a Step in the Portal Sections panel will change the contents of the right panel and display the Step Settings.  

  1. Select the Form Pages tab to access the setting.

  1. The setting is at the top of the page in the What type of page is this Step? section.

 

Changing Page Content to be View Only

In the What type of page is this Step? section of the Form Pages tab, there are two toggle buttons can be selected:

  • Input + View: this option (selected by default) means that all fields on the form can be edited by the portal user when the corresponding Step is accessed (unless individual fields are set to View Only in the Details tab).
  • View ONLY: this option means that all fields on a form, as well as any information entered into those fields, can be viewed by the portal user when the corresponding Step is accessed; however, any information entered into the fields by workspace administrators cannot be changed by the portal user.

To change the page to View Only:

  1. Select the radio button next to View ONLY.

  1. Select the blue Save all settings button in the lower right corner of the screen to save the changes to the Step.


NOTE: Individual fields can still be hidden in the submission portal on the Details tab, even if the Step itself is set to View Only. 

 

Changes to the Submission Portal Experience

When a Step page has been set to View Only, the following changes can be observed in the submission portal:

  1. The interactive button to access a Step changes from Open or Edit to View.

  1. When the View Only Step is accessed, the portal user will be able to view fields and information entered into those fields by administrators, but will not be able to edit them.

  1. If the Step Type is a Listing Step, portal users will be unable to add or delete list items (records) in the submission portal if the Step page is set to View ONLY.

For more information about adding and deleting items in a Listing Step type, see the following articles:



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