Hide SharePoint 2007 list column from edition using JavaScript

Here is a quite simple way to hide some column in a SharePoint list when you create/edit/view a list item, using JavaScript.

Here is my list definition:

I just have Title and MyHiddenColumn columns.

Here are the 4 pages where my list can be viewed and edited.

Create new item:

List view:

Display item:

Edit item:

What I want to do is to hide the MyHiddenColumn column (this could be useful to manage confidential information related to a list item).

To hide this column to the list view, I just have to remove the column from the view (easy).

To hide the column on the 3 other screens, I will use the following JavaScript code, included in the page:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("hideFields");

function findacontrol(FieldName) {

   var arr = document.getElementsByTagName("!");

   // get all comments

   for (var i=0;i < arr.length; i++ )

   {

      // now match the field name

      if (arr[i].innerHTML.indexOf(FieldName) > 0) {

          return arr[i];     

      }

   }

}

function hideFields() {

   var control = findacontrol("MyHiddenColumn");

   control.parentNode.parentNode.style.display="none";

}

</script>

Where MyHiddenColumn is the name of the column I want to hide.

You can edit the page using Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer.

Save your change.

The result is then:

Create new item:

Display item:

Edit item:

Not so stupid question now, how can I edit this hidden field? The solution is Data Sheet view:

If you ensure that standard users cannot use another view than the default one (without this column displayed), this is a simple solution to add confidential information to a list item without creating a second list.