Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 26982
Add ability to specify data source as Read only
Last modified: 2018-09-22 16:07:22 UTC
Hi, It would be nice IMHO to have the ability to mark any data source as Read only when the datasource is set up within OOo. My reason for this is that I use OpenOffice.org to connect users to their live data and I would like to be able to specify in the data source the user only has Read Only access. Whilst this is not secure and probably not acceptable in a large corporate environment (and these environments would have better more secure facilities) I feel it is acceptable in a small business environment. This approach would solve some issues which keep cropping up for me and others users in users mail list that I have read. For data sources such as text and Calc this field could be marked as Read Only - Yes, and greyed out. This provides feedback to the user they are using a Read Only data source. For dBase the first user gets Read/Write access and subsequent users get Read Only access. By providing the ability to set the users Read Only access I could then set the primary user as the only user with Read/Write access. This would make the existing dBase driver a magnitude better in a small business environment. In a small business environment one user is often given the role to maintain important lists like telephone list. Many users can then access this list in read only mode. For ODBC some data source such as MS Access allow you to specify Read Only. However the ODBC dBase driver does not provide this ability. Thus there is no way in OpenOffice.org to prevent users accidentally over typing data in the data source. A Read Only flag would enable this to be controlled within OOo more easily. I cannot speak for other data sources but I think the same may apply there as well. Having a Read Only field would provide users with feedback and some additional options. However it is not fool proof. It may not even be worth the effort. But I felt it was worth raising as an idea as it would make my use and experience with OpenOffice.org much better. As a consultant this approach would allow me more options to use OpenOffice.org to meet client requirements. Currently I use Microsoft products to get around these issues. As a final note it is probably important to treat data sources with this field as they currently are by default. That is if the data source is seen as Read Only the field is marked as Read Only and greyed out so the user knows they can't change it. If the data source is Read/Write then the field defaults to Read/Write and can be changed to Read Only by the user via the data source setup. Use the idea as you see fit. Thanks Kelvin
set to bh for evaluating
I'd like to advocate this.
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on my owner to the owner "requirements".
A workaround is to protect this file through the operating system
(In reply to oooforum (fr) from comment #4) > A workaround is to protect this file through the operating system I think that's only true when using the default hsqldb database. When AOO connects to external databases, a read-only .ODB file won't stop them from being changed. Also a read-only .ODB for hsqldb has the disadvantage that you can't save queries, reports or relationship diagrams either. On the other hand our SDBC API does have setReadOnly()/isReadOnly() functions (https://www.openoffice.org/api/docs/common/ref/com/sun/star/sdbc/XConnection.html#setReadOnly), and it should be easy to add them to the GUI.