Work Notes and Comment are not visible for itil_readonly role on INC, Change, PRB and Release Form

[tavvaguntaa]

Hi Team,

I am working on enabling Work Notes/Comments access for the itil_readonly role. When I impersonate an itil_readonly role user and open INC/CHG/PRB/REL records, the Work Notes, Comments fields are not visible on the form.

The requirement is to first make these fields visible on the form and then allow edit access only for those fields while keeping the rest of the fields read-only.

What I have checked so far:
• Created ACLs for work_notes, comments with read/write access.
• Verified that there is already table-level read ACL for the itil_readonly role.
• Checked Client Scripts and UI Policies to see if any script is hiding the fields, but none were found.
• Tried Security Debugging, but it did not point to any blocking ACL.

Even after these checks, the Work Notes/Comments fields are still not visible on the form.

Could anyone please help check this and suggest what might be causing the issue?

[maliksneha9]

Hi,

This behavior is expected for the itil_readonly role and usually occurs because Work Notes and Comments are journal fields that are controlled by additional mechanisms beyond ACLs.

Even if ACLs are created correctly, the fields may still not appear on the form for itil_readonly users due to form configuration or activity formatter behavior. Here are a few things you should check:

1. Verify the Fields Are on the Form Layout

First confirm that Work Notes and Comments are actually present on the form layout. If they are not on the form, they will not appear for any user regardless of ACL permissions.

2. Check the Activity Formatter

In most task-based forms (Incident, Change, Problem, etc.), Work Notes and Comments are usually accessed through the Activity Formatter rather than directly as fields.

Verify that the Activity Formatter is present on the form:

Form → Configure → Form Layout → Look for Activity (Formatter)

If the Activity Formatter is present but the journal fields are not visible, it may be due to role restrictions.

3. Check the “Show Journal Fields” Settings in the Activity Formatter

The Activity Formatter can filter which journal fields are displayed. Ensure that:

• Work Notes

• Additional Comments

are enabled within the formatter configuration.

4. Verify UI Policies

Although you mentioned checking UI Policies, also confirm that there are no UI Policies with conditions like:

Roles does not contain itil

These can sometimes hide fields indirectly.

5. Editing While Keeping Other Fields Read-Only

Once the fields are visible, the usual approach is:

• Keep the table read-only ACL for the itil_readonly role.

• Create write ACLs only for:

  • work_notes

  • comments

This allows users with itil_readonly to update only those journal fields while the rest of the form remains read-only.

Once the fields are visible, your ACL approach should work correctly to allow edits only for those fields.

Hope this helps!

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@tavvaguntaa 

they need to pass Table.None WRITE ACL as well to edit the record even after giving access to field level READ + WRITE

Did you check that?

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