Prevent edits to specific fields (and manage a report)

[Bud]

We have municipal asset FCs in an Oracle 18c 10.7.1 enterprise geodatabase. Our Finance department has asked if they can do the following:

1. Get me to add additional finance-related fields to the FCs.
2. Finance staff would edit those new fields, but not edit any of the other fields.
3. Finance staff want to create & manage their own reports on the data, including complex calculated fields.

Questions:

1. What are my options for getting people with no GIS skills to edit GIS data? The solution needs to let staff see all fields in the FCs, but only lets them edit certain fields.
   • For example, use ArcGIS Pro or a Portal web map. I'm leaning towards ArcGIS Pro since the users would need to do field calculations.
2. I plan to use Excel as a user-maintained reporting tool. Will that work?
   • The spreadsheet would use real-time GIS data via an ODBC connection and Microsoft Query. I would set up a true Excel table using the GIS data so Finance staff could easily create calculated columns (enter the formula once, it auto-fills the column's formula).
   • The reason why I want to use Excel is that Finance staff have already mocked up all of their complex calculations in a spreadsheet. It would be easier for Finance staff to use their existing Excel formulas in the Excel report rather than get me to rewrite the math as SQL or Arcade in a different platform.

What do you think? Thanks. 

[Eugene_Adkins]

With Pro, from the data design/fields option of the feature class, you can make certain fields read only. That will prevent the user from editing those specific fields but leave other fields as editable.

[Bud]

Thanks. Is that done within the Pro project file for all users who use that project? (the user could in theory circumvent it if they're determined)

Or is it done by the data owner at the geodatabase level, restricting only specific users?

[Eugene_Adkins]

I haven’t tested it extensively but my experience is that you can make the individual field “read only” within each aprx through the data design/fields avenue. If someone were “determined” they could undo the setting but they would have to make an effort that obviously could/would go against explicit instructions to stay on task. If the data is constructed with fields that are read only and then published and brought back into an aprx as a feature service, I believe that would prevent the user from overriding that specific field(s) setting … but I haven’t tested that.

Hope that helps point you in a useful direction.

[Bud]

Related: Add and Edit ArcGIS Layer Attribute Data in an Excel Worksheet

• https://mediaspace.esri.com/media/t/1_qblf60xd/270004572
• https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-for-excel/announcements/add-and-edit-arcgis-layer-a...
• https://doc.arcgis.com/en/microsoft-365/latest/excel/get-started-with-arcgis-for-excel.htm 

[Bud]

I assume using attribute rules would also be an option. If user1, then allow edits. If user2, don't allow edits.

Idea - Restrict edits to specific fields based on DB role