Change UDF field on system form to enabled = false

Question

When doing this, it works fine (on the item master form).  The udfs that I don't want to be editable are disabled (grayed out).  But as soon as anything is typed into ANY field on any pane in the main form or into any of my editable UDFs, the disabled fields immediately become enabled again!  (If I listen for key-down on a field & redisable my UDFS it works, and further entry into any field does not affect the enabled status!  This is obviously no solution, though.  There might be over a hundred fields on this form and it's impratical to listen for key down on all of them!)
I'm doing this as a proof of concept, and if we get it right, we're likely to sell this customer SAP B1, so I'd really like to get this right!
So, searching the forum, I see something about SetAutoManagedAttribute & I try setting the editable attribute to false for these fields.  That line of code crashes:
item2.SetAutoManagedAttribute(BoAutoManagedAttr.ama_Editable, SAPbouiCOM.BoAutoFormMode.afm_Ok, BoModeVisualBehavior.mvb_False)
with a message: "Exception from HRESULT: 0xFFFFE4A2."
(NO text with ANY of these HRESULT messages - where can i find info on them?)
I thought maybe the problem was that I can't use the SET feature for UDFS so I've tried it on the itemcode field itself and this bombs out too!
        <B1Listener(BoEventTypes.et_MENU_CLICK, False)> _
        Public Overridable Sub OnAfterMenuClick(ByVal pVal As MenuEvent)
            Dim form As Form
            form = B1Connections.theAppl.Forms.ActiveForm
            Dim it As Item = form.Items.Item("5")
            Dim pl As Integer = form.PaneLevel
            If pl <> 1 Then
                form.Freeze(True)
                form.PaneLevel = 1
                form.Freeze(False)
                Try
                    it.SetAutoManagedAttribute(BoAutoManagedAttr.ama_Editable, SAPbouiCOM.BoAutoFormMode.afm_Ok, BoModeVisualBehavior.mvb_True)
                Catch ex As Exception
                End Try
            End If
            If form.PaneLevel <> pl Then
                form.Freeze(True)
                form.PaneLevel = pl
                form.Freeze(False)
            End If
(I saw another post on the forum about not being able to change the visible attribute unless the current pane contained the field being changed, so that's why I'm trying to switch it & switch it back and I've tried the SET command without the panelevel switch and I always get the same error)
PS I'm at p16  - THANK YOU!

Answer 1

Hi John,
Do the UDFs have to be on the Item Master window itself (ie can they be left on the UDF tab)?
Would this work as a solution?...
Use the UDF settings to create 2 different UDF categories and assign the 2 different sets to these categories. Then, when the user selects a particular item, your add-on can check the item group and automatically change the UDF category to reflect the correct item group. Sure, it doesn't set the other fields to inactive but it does hide them from the user. Only issue would be if you have other UDFs that are generic (ie non-group specific) as you can only assign a UDF to a single category.
Kind Regards,
Owen