I would like to give my agents access to open answers but how do I prevent them from editing them?

Environment: 

Answers, Workspaces

Resolution:

You can give your agents access to open and read answers and prevent them from editing the answer by making a change to the profile associated to the agent as well as the answer workspace they are utilizing.  To accomplish this, you will need to edit the Answer Workspace and edit the agent Profile.

First, modify the Answer workspace that the agents are utilizing.  You will need to remove any references to 'Save', 'Delete' and 'Save & Close' on the workspace by taking the following steps;

1. Navigate to Configuration > Application Appearance > Workspaces
2. Open the appropriate answer workspace or make a copy of the standard workspace to make changes to
3. Click the 'Ribbon' button on the 'Home' tab in the ribbon
4. Double click on the ‘Home’ line in the ‘Editing Ribbon’ area in the ‘Ribbon Designer’ pop up window and then double click on the 'Actions’.  This will bring up the buttons that are currently in the ribbon on the workspace
5. Highlight the appropriate buttons you would like to delete and click the ‘Delete Button’ button
6. Next, you must remove the ‘Save’ buttons from the ‘Configure Quick Access Buttons’ area
7. Click on this area in the ‘Ribbon Preview’ and remove the appropriate buttons by de-selecting them in the 'Configure Quick Access buttons' pop up window
8. Once you have removed all buttons as necessary from the Quick Access pop up window, click ‘OK’ and 'OK' again and save the workspace

Please note, it is very important that the 'Save' buttons are removed from both the Ribbon and the Quick Access Buttons area.  If you remove the 'Save' buttons from the Ribbon but leave a 'Save' button in the Quick Access Buttons area, the agent will be able to make changes to an answer and save these changes

Next, edit the profile associated to the agent by taking the following steps;

1. Navigate to Configuration > Staff Management > Profiles and open the appropriate profile
2. Ensure that the Answer workspace you just modified is selected in the Workspaces/Workflows
3. Click Permissions in the Ribbon
4. Click on the Service tab
5. Select 'Add/Edit' under Answers
6. Save the profile

In order for an agent to open an answer, they must have the 'Add/Edit' permissions under Answers selected on their Profile.

Once you have made all changes above, an agent will be able to open and read answers.  The agent will be able to make changes to the answer however they will not be able to save any changes to an answer with the modified workspace that does not include any Save or Delete buttons.  Rather, when they close the answer they will receive a pop-up message that indicates 'Data cannot be saved at this time.  If you continue, your changes will be lost'.  Once they click ok on this, any modifications they made to the answer will not be saved. 

For more information on setting read only access, refer to Read-only access to records.