Hiding "Add Me" UI Macro when record is inactive

[rlehmann]

We've used http://www.servicenowguru.com/system-ui/ui-macros/add-me-ui-macro-user-group-fields/ to add the "Add Me" UI macro to the Assigned to field on task table records (Incident, Problem, Change, Catalog Task, etc.) to give people a quick way of assigning the ticket to themselves.

Previously we leveraged a client script to hide the macro from the form when the record is inactive.

To align with best practice, we are trying to retire any client scripts using DOM manipulation and update the macro.

I've attempted to tweak the macro to only work when the record is active.
The challenge is that in order for this version to work, we need to include the Active field on the form itself.
Preference is not to have the Active field visible on the form.

Is there another way we can achieve this without adding Active to the form?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<j:jelly trim="false" xmlns:j="jelly:core" xmlns:g="glide" xmlns:j2="null" xmlns:g2="null">
   <j:set var="jvar_n" value="add_me_${ref}"/>
   <a id="${jvar_n}" onclick="addMe('${ref}')">
     <img border="0" src="images/icons/user_obj.gifx" title="${gs.getMessage('Add me')}" alt="${gs.getMessage('Add me')}"/>
   </a>

   <g2:evaluate var="jvar_groups" expression="gs.getUser().getMyGroups()" />

   <script>
      function addMe(reference) {
         //Hide any field messages
         g_form.hideFieldMsg('assigned_to', true);

         //Check to see if the user is a member of selected group
         var aGrp = g_form.getValue('assignment_group');
         var myGroups = '$[jvar_groups]';
		 var active = g_form.getValue('active');

         if(active === 'true' $[AMP]$[AMP] aGrp $[AMP]$[AMP] myGroups.indexOf(aGrp) > -1){
            //Get the user reference field and populate the current user
            var s = reference.split('.');
            var referenceField = s[1];
            g_form.setValue(referenceField, '$[gs.getUserID()]');
         } else if(active !== 'true'){
			//Display a field error message
            g_form.showFieldMsg('assigned_to','Unable to update Assigned to. Record is no longer active.','error');
		 }
         else{
            //Display a field error message
            g_form.showFieldMsg('assigned_to','You are not a member of the current assignment group.  Please select one of your groups and try again.','error');
         }
      }
   </script>
</j:jelly>

Thanks in advance.

Ron

[Sai Kumar B]

@rlehmann 

Have you considered hiding the "Assigned to" or Making it read-only on the form if the record is Inactive? So, that users will have no access to UI macro

[rlehmann]

Thanks for the suggestion Sai, but our organization still needs to see who was assigned the ticket when it was closed.

[Sai Kumar B]

@rlehmann In that case you can make field read-only. Users can’t access UI macros associated with read-only fields.

[rlehmann]

The Assigned to field is already set to read only on inactive records.
The UI Macro still appears and still functions on the record, effectively allowing me to reassign a close record to myself, provided I'm in that assignment group.

This was the reason we were originally using a client script with DOM manipulation to hide that UI macro.