Formulation security
Formulation visibility controls who can see and work with formulations and their versions.
This allows you to keep work private while developing, share formulas with specific teams, or make them available to everyone when ready.
The system automatically manages access so that users only see formulas they are allowed to use.
Default formulation visibility
On the Formulation setup page you can configure the default visibility using the Default Formulation Visibility field. For more information, see Set up formulation management. When you create new formulation the header is created using this default, but new versions automatically inherit the header’s visibility. Changing the default later does not affect existing formulations.
Visibility options:
Each formulation or formulation version can have one of the following visibility options:
- Private: Only you can see and edit the formulation
- Shared: Visible to all users
- Group: Visible only to users in selected R&D groups. For more information, see Setup R&D groups.
To ensure consistent access, the system enforces a key rule: a formulation header can never be more restrictive than any of its versions. If the header were more restrictive than a version, users could lose access to versions they are otherwise allowed to see.
The formulation header automatically adjusts its visibility based on the most open visibility of its versions. When version security changes, the system evaluates all existing versions and updates the header if necessary.
For example, if a formulation header is initially Private and all of its versions are also Private, only the owner can see the formulation. If one of those versions is later changed to Group visibility, the formulation header is automatically updated to Group as well. This allows members of the group to open the formulation and access the shared version.
If another version is later changed to Shared, the header visibility is updated again and becomes Shared. At this point, all authorized users can open the formulation, while version-level rules still control which versions they can access.
Working with group visibility
When the default visibility in the Formulation Setup field value is set to Group, the system requires a valid R&D group to be specified.
Only users who belong to the selected R&D group are allowed to create formulas using this setup. If a user who is not a member of the group attempts to create a formulation, the system will block the action and display an error message indicating that the user does not belong to the required group.
Once created, the formula header and its initial version are both assigned Group visibility using the group defined in setup. From that point forward, only members of that group can see or work with the formula, unless the visibility is later changed to a less restrictive level, such as Shared.