# Lock Courses in CMS Studio

**URL:** <https://discuss.openedx.org/t/lock-courses-in-cms-studio/7023>\
**Category:** Authoring\
**Created:** [April 13, 2022, 8:55pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/lock-courses-in-cms-studio/7023 "2022-04-13T20:55:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![justin-jones](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/justin-jones/32/5511_2.png) [@justin-jones](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/justin-jones)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 8:55pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/lock-courses-in-cms-studio/7023/1 "2022-04-13T20:55:09Z")

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Hello Team!

We are looking to see if there is current functionality, or an alternative capability, to allow our admins to lock a course in the cms studio? Or, if this is planned functionality in a future release?

**Desired functional behavior:**

- Admin can lock/unlock a course
- When a course is “locked” course teams can view the course, subsections, and units but, would not be able to add/update/delete/publish changes.

**Desired UI behavior:**

- When a course is locked it has a visual indicator it is locked (lock icon, or color border etc)  
\*\* this applies to the course list page and course detail pages

If there are ways to manage this without the actual locking capability we would also welcome those thoughts. (roles?, groups?, users?, course teams? etc.)

Thanks in advance for any replies or thoughts around this topic!

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**Author:** ![Dean](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/dean/32/4787_2.png) [@Dean](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Dean)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2022, 12:51pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/lock-courses-in-cms-studio/7023/2 "2022-04-14T12:51:11Z")

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Hi @justin-jones

It’s not exactly what you are describing, but here is current pull request that will allow Course Admins to stop Course Staff from deleting course sections, by hiding the trash icon.

> <https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/pull/27857>
>
> \<!--
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> Please give the pull request a short but descriptive title.
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> \--\>
> 
> \## Description
> 
> This PR and a check to show/hide the delete button on the course content in Studio. With these changes, the delete button is only visible to the admin user one with the \`CourseInstructor\` role only and will not be visible to the \`CourseStaff\` role users.
> 
> Course Outline view for the user when it has \*admin\* access to the course
> !\[admin\_role\_user\_page\_view\](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/15611967/120972898-e0278500-c78b-11eb-8a96-47a6d613536e.png)
> 
> Course Outline view for the user when it has \*staff\* access to the course
> !\[staff\_role\_user\_page\_view\](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/15611967/120973072-1533d780-c78c-11eb-9400-b9101db08a64.png)
> 
> 
> \## Supporting information
> JIRA Ticket: \[SE-4482\](https://tasks.opencraft.com/browse/SE-4482)
> 
> \## Testing instructions
> \- Login with \`staff@example.com\` on \`https://studio.pr27857.sandbox.opencraft.hosting/\`. On this sandbox we have given the superuser privileges to \`staff@example.com\`
> \- Go to the setting \> Course team of the \*Demonstration Course\* 
> \- Add \`verified@example.com\` as the staff for the course
> \- Login from the \`verified@example.com\` on the studio page
> \- \`verified@example.com\` should not be able to see the delete button on the course outline page.
> 
> \## Reviewers
> 
> \- \[\] @nizarmah

Alternatively you can remove the Course Staff from the course, but then they cannot view it which is not ideal for you either.

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**Author:** ![justin-jones](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/justin-jones/32/5511_2.png) [@justin-jones](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/justin-jones)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 7:22pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/lock-courses-in-cms-studio/7023/3 "2022-04-15T19:22:14Z")

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Thanks @Dean! Yeah, we have looked into the removing of the staff from the course. It is a lot of manual work for our course team. Also, there are some requirements that we have been asked for that our course team wants to still be on the course so that they can continue to view everything.

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**Author:** ![justin-jones](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/justin-jones/32/5511_2.png) [@justin-jones](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/justin-jones)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 9:44pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/lock-courses-in-cms-studio/7023/4 "2022-04-20T21:44:04Z")

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**Edit to the above Request:**  
Instead of it being the “admin” locking the course we are looking for the “superuser” locking and unlocking the course.  
_I don’t see how to edit my post, or I would._

Good Evening Team,

We are trying to gauge if the “Course Locking” feature is something that others are interested in or if this is something unique to our team.

_Reason for the question:_  
We are trying to determine if this makes sense to look at trying to get this into the open edX core functionality or if it is something that we should just handle as a one-off because it is a unique request to just our team.

Thanks in advance for your comments/replies/likes!

_Disclaimer:_  
We are not committing to developing this feature. Just looking at getting information to help our team make an informed decision on a path forward.

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**Author:** ![justin-jones](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/justin-jones/32/5511_2.png) [@justin-jones](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/justin-jones)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 12:43pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/lock-courses-in-cms-studio/7023/5 "2022-04-25T12:43:45Z")

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_Poll ([view on site](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/lock-courses-in-cms-studio/7023/5))_