Extension Request - "Lock Entry"

I am a hopeless programmer, though I wish to goodness I weren’t, because I really need/want this great idea for an extension and if I could, I’d build it myself and then share it with you all. So instead, I thought I would put the idea out there, see if anyone else was enthused about it, or had feedback, and maybe someone would jump in and build it (or maybe you know one that already exists that has similar attributes).

I keep running into a serious problem with some of my EE projects - the concept that some entries, which basically constitute “static pages” for lack of a better term - are pages I do not ever want deleted by the editors of that site, nor do I want them to create a new one hoping that will replace the old one, nor do I want them to mess with the url_title. Instead, I want them to be able to only edit the existing pages, not (in some cases) add new ones or delete.

I know there’s the Pages module, and also the really nifty looking Structure software, but really, this doesn’t help me when I have several levels of pages and other weird things going on.

So what I am looking for is this:

• An extension that produces what I’m calling a “lock type” where you can store attributes you want to attach to a single post.

• That lock type would store, for instance, “no delete,” “no new,” “lock url_title,” “no changes,” and other desirable actions. I would think you would want to assign weblogs where you want this lock type to be available, and assign what user groups can access it.

• Then, when you create an entry, say, “Home Page” with a url title of home_page, you can assign the desired lock type to it, maybe on its own tab? And then, member groups who do not have access to the lock type, but have full access to edit/add for that weblog, are denied deletion, or changing the Url_title, or what have you, for that entry, and are told so when they try to edit it.

• I could see a “lock type” being assigned and applied across an entire weblog for simplicity if developing that added step of having “lock types” is too hard to develop (especially in the case of “no new” which would have to be a weblog wide attribute anyway). After all, if you need an unlocked weblog, you could just create a new weblog but give it the same field group, categories, etc.

• Conversely, I could see where it might be useful to just assign the individual attributes (“no delete” or “lock url_title” or whatever) on an entry-by-entry basis every time too, again for simplicity, instead of trying to group them into “lock types.”

This extension would address what I feel is a lack of granularity on controlling edit/add actions in weblogs for your user groups. You have to assign an entire group edit access, or delete, or whatever, but that might not be desirable. If you have entries you DO NOT WANT DELETED, or DO NOT WANT CHANGED, you’re screwed hoping that the client understands your directions in telling them to keep their mitts off that entry. 😊

Anyone else think this would be a useful idea? I could use this on 2 out of 3 projects, myself…