There exists the ability to change the “text” of a dropdown value without changing the underlying reference data and this feature request is for the ability to lock down drop down lists so they cannot be changed.  Although it is quite clear on the dropdown configuration screen that you should use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to change the order of the list, you can also just change the text in the text box.  This can occur when new developers are given the task of reordering a list.  If the dropdown is shared amongst several screens and the dropdown has different importance on each, the update stemming from a irrelevant screen could be duplicated on screens of the utmost importance.  As an example, say a developer was given the task of reordering a Yes/No dropdown to a No/Yes dropdown and Yes has a ref of 1 and No has a ref of 2.  If the text is change instead of using the up/down buttons to re-order the list then Yes becomes a ref of 2 and No has a ref of 1 – completely reversing the metadata associated with the question.

This is particularly harmful with the workflow rules associated with the dropdown.  It appears that if any drop down list is changed in such a manner, vfire will reflect that change on the left side of the “Available Conditions” popup window, and it will use the left side values as the rule (which represents the metadata current state) and not the rule that as represented under the “Dependency Criteria Rules List” box on the right side of the popup (which is the state of the metadata when the rule was written).  So according to the rule, if you answer No – the rule recognizes it as “Yes”, and if you answer Yes – the rule recognizes it as “No”.

With this feature request we would like to have the ability to lock-down important dropdown lists from inadvertently being changed when the change causes a conflict with its associated rules.