---
title: Read Only Vs Disabled Fields
order: 56
layout: page
---

[NOTE]
*Partially outdated*:
This article was written before Vaadin 7.3, and is referring to the previous default theme, Reindeer. The visual appearance of read-only fields is different in the newer default theme, Valo. In Valo, read-only fields retain the border around the input field.

[[read-only-vs-disabled-fields]]
= Read-only vs Disabled fields

Vaadin input field components have both a _disabled_ and a _read-only_
state (which can be set through the *setEnabled(false)* and
*setReadOnly(true)* methods respectively). While at first glance these
seem to be interchangeable, there is a distinct difference in their
effects and proper usage.

image:img/disabledvsreadonly.png[Disabled vs read-only]

As you can see in the image above, the visual effects of the two states
are clearly different. The _disabled_ ComboBox is “grayed out” but looks
otherwise identical to its normal state. The _read-only_ ComboBox,
meanwhile, doesn’t look like a ComboBox at all, but more like a *Label*.
This visual difference is the key to understanding when to use which
state.

[[disabled-fields]]
Disabled fields
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

An input field is disabled to indicate that it cannot _currently_ be
used. This might be because it is _not applicable_, e.g. due to the
value of some other field. Let’s look at the following piece of a
questionnaire form as an example:

image:img/disabled1.png[Disabled example]

The “years” dropdown above is _disabled_ unless the _Yes_ radio button
is selected, since it naturally _is not applicable_ otherwise. Another
reason for disabling a field might be that the user lacks the required
permissions to set it, such as in the following example:

image:img/disabled3.png[Disabled example 2]

In both cases, there is no need to _read_ the value of the field, since
it cannot have a value or simply isn’t applicable or relevant in the
current context. This is why disabled fields are grayed out with a
reduced opacity effect in Vaadin built-in themes.

[[read-only-fields]]
Read-only fields
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

_Read-only_, on the other hand, is used when a field is currently only
used to _display_ a value, without providing any means of changing it.
In this case, it is important that the field is presented in a
_readable_ way, which is why Vaadin generally renders them like labels,
without the unnecessary component chrome. A very common example is a
form that can be toggled between viewing and editing modes:

image:img/viewmode-readonly.png[Viewing vs editing]

Using read-only fields in viewing mode means that you don’t have to swap
between labels and input fields in your UI code when view/edit mode is
toggled. Instead, you just iterate through your fields set read-only
mode on or off:

[source,java]
....
Iterator<Component> i = someLayout.getComponentIterator();
while (i.hasNext()) {
  Component c = i.next();
  if (c instanceof com.vaadin.ui.AbstractField) {
    AbstractField field = (AbstractField)c;
    field.setReadOnly(true);
  }
}
....

Even better, if your fields are databound through a *FieldGroup*, their
read-only states can be collectively toggled through the *FieldGroup*:

[source,java]
....
FieldGroup fieldGrp = new FieldGroup(dataItem);
TextField tfName = new TextField(“Name”);
fieldGrp.bind(tfName, “name”);
TextField tfAge = new TextField(“Age”);
fieldGrp.bind(tfAge, “age”);
fieldGrp.setReadOnly(true);
....

(Unfortunately, setting a Vaadin component container, like a layout,
_read-only_ does not set all its components read-only recursively, as
one might expect. Doing the same with _disabled does_, though.)

One caveat regarding read-only fields is that if the text is longer than
the field, it will be clipped, as opposed to a Label, which instead will
wrap the text to a new line. Thus, in certain situations, switching to
Labels may be preferable.

It’s probably best to mention here that *setReadOnly(true)* also has a
certain side-effect in Vaadin that *setEnabled(false)* does not: You
cannot set the value of a _read-only_ field even in server-side code.
The following code would throw a *ReadOnlyException*:

[source,java]
....
TextField tfFoo = new TextField();
tfFoo.setReadOnly(true);
tfFoo.setValue(“foo”);
....

[[why-this-is-important]]
Why this is important
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Understanding the difference between _disabled_ and _read-only_ is
important because using them wrong tends to harm usability. First, let’s
see what happens if you use _disabled_ instead _read-only_ in the
view/edit example form above:

image:img/viewmode-disabled.png[Viewing with disabled]

Not very readable, is it? Looks kind of awful, doesn’t it? The reduced
opacity and unnecessary component chrome really make _reading_ the form
rather painful, which kind of defeats the entire "view" mode.

Okay, so the other way around, what if we use _read-only_ instead of
_disabled_ in the wrong situation? The field will look like a *Label*,
and that’s not so bad, right? Well, if the field is _empty_, as is often
the case with disabled fields, then in read-only mode it would simply be
_invisible_, save for the caption (if it has one):

image:img/readonly-wrong.png[Readonly wrong use]

Admittedly, not as bad as using disabled for read-only forms, but bad
enough. Also, even if the field does have a value, setting it
_read-only_ gives the user the impression that it cannot be changed at
all, whereas a grayed out _disabled_ field indicates that it could be
changed, if only the circumstances were different...