what do you mean with to make form read only?

how do you you achieve that without importing form?

there is no form level settings/option to make it read only. you will have to apply formatting rules on respective controls and set them disabled.

Hi, 

Thanks for you response. Sorry, I should have provided a better explanation. 

These are the steps I would usually follow:

I create a list and form, make adjustments to the forms to meet requirements. I then create a workflow and flexi task. Under the assign flexi task/item permissions you can 'set user permissions' to Read only and the 'When task is complete, set user permissions to' to read only.

I then create the task form and edit to match the original. 

This results in the approver getting a form with all fields read only, aside from their flexi task.

My idea was was to help expedite the process by removing the need to create a second form. What I was hoping to do, was to export the original form xml and import this to the flexi task form, then add the decision task. When I do this the form no-longer picks up setting changes I make for permissions.

What I want to know is has anyone seen this? is there a better way? or am i just doing it wrong.

As a Nintex novice any help and advice is greatly appreciated

Thanks

ok, thanks. clear now what are you talking about.

Under the assign flexi task/item permissions you can 'set user permissions' to Read onlyUnder the assign flexi task/item permissions you can 'set user permissions' to Read only

....

This results in the approver getting a form with all fields read only,

that's a bit misinterpretation of the setting from your side.

the setting is for 'Item permission' as the whole block/section is labeled, ie. it sets up permission for an item the workflow is running on. this has no effect on task form.

the task form, when generated by NINTEX, sets enabled property for all the item's controls to NO, causing all the item's fields seems to be read only. hopefully, you understand difference between item's field's and task's fields, and so reason why task's decision and comments fields are still editable.

but once again, this has nothing to do with item permission settings -  see eg. following example: I set item permission to full control but still got item's fields disabled.

when you import already built/exported form, it takes over control settings. so if you had them enabled in entry form they stay enabled in task form.

regarding task form design and requirement of showing item's data there, I would encourage you to read my following post  

there I describe why I see it better not to customize task form for every task-type action and explain how I deal with that.

hope it helps.

Thanks Marian, this is very helpful.