Disabling Duplicate Selected

ShotGrid
#1

Is there a permissions setting to disable the ‘Duplicate Selected’ option in the right-click menu?

1 Like
#2

Right now, there’s not an option to disable the duplicate functionality in Shotgun. What’s the workflow you’re trying to support (or not support :wink: )

1 Like
#3

Hi Mason,

If a Role has permission to “Create” a given Entity, then the Duplicate Selected option is available in the right-click menu.

Duplicate Selected as a right-click menu option is a problem.

Scenario:

  • A senior asset artist has been told they need to work on a new Asset. - But they can’t work on that Asset until it exists in Shotgun due to a Task environment management tool.
  • Production staff have not yet created the Asset entity in Shotgun.
  • The Sr. Artist Role has the ability to create Asset Entities
    (Shotgun support staff have suggested to allow more permission than necessary, removing permissions as things present as problems)
    • We want to allow this for the situations where an assets artist does know the safe way to create a new asset using the + Asset button.
  • The artist then chooses to Duplicate Selected on an asset they’re familiar with rather than using the + Asset button (because they may be unaware of the implications of their actions)
  • A new Asset Entity is created.

Problems incurred by the above scenario:

  • The new Entity will have an assigned code field: AssetName (Copy) by default.
    • If folder creation triggers are in place (whether by Webhooks, or by Shotgun Event Daemons), this creates a series of related folders on the network. - These “junk” folders may have unacceptable or disallowed characters in the filepaths, and are unnecessarily taxing on the hardware.
  • Triggers for Entity “Creation” will only trigger on the duplication (EventLogEntry metadata "in_create" : True), not on the rename to the appropriate name as a followup step (which would register as a field update).
  • If any of the linked or related Entities on the duplicated Entity are not set to be “Created” by that Role, then the duplication of the Entity will fail - leaving the web UI in a non-responsive state.
    (This will also not duplicate the base Entity)
  • For Assets: If a generic Asset Entity has multi-entity links to multiple shots, then all the connections to those “Related Shots” are also duplicated. - This has the certainty to affect Asset membership and inclusion for other Pipeline / Production tools which deal with Rig referencing / imported assets / ingested products / QA tools, etc.

I’m sure there are more issues and implications which I have not considered yet.

Suggestions:

  • Provide a Permissions-People setting to remove the right-click menu for Duplicate Selected
  • Change the functionality of Duplicate Selected so that it presents the user with an Entity creation interface with filled-in fields taken from the original Entity so that the user is aware of the field population.

I hope this characterizes some potential workflow issues.

Cheers,
David

#4

Thank you @Mason / @shotgunSupport for the dialogue concerning this topic.

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to disable the ‘Duplicate Selected’ option per Permission Group. … we have no plans in the short-term to dive into this area of Shotgun.

The Duplicate Selected functionality is considered a globally available option so long as the user Role is permitted to Create that Entity type.

When asked about the reasoning behind this decision:

No specific reasoning, just that we didn’t hear these use-cases when the functionality was developed (many moons ago) so the extra controls weren’t included.

In an effort to save Artists / Production staff from this “feature” - I propose that the only workaround currently available is such:

  • Turn off primary Entity creation for all Roles (effectively disabling the right-click menu for duplicate selected)
  • Build a framework of Action Menu Item(s) for Create: Asset, Shot, Episode, Playlist, Project, etc. (made available to the Roles who previously had the ability to create those Entities)
  • Build an additional Action Menu Item which could then be exposed to select Roles to permit “safe duplication” of selected entities.

This seems to be a lot of work prescribed to the tech team in order to appropriately respond to the situation. - It is also very opaque and disconnected from the “Permissions” of a Role, so future maintenance of the system could be a challenge.

This would also circumvent the most effective feature of Shotgun’s web UI - The Creation Template Form

From reading [this] post, …the first thing I’d suggest would be to attempt to train your users to not use the ‘Duplicate’ function. …the suggestions [above] would work, although as you point out, that’s a fair bit of work.

As a follow up, I will be bringing this issue to the Product Team through the roadmap. - If this is affecting you as well, I suggest chiming in on the suggestion to help promote it. (link to follow)

If anyone is aware of a more suitable method or approach to this issue, I would love to hear it!