Disable an attribute in Magento admin

Question

I would like to disable a field in magento admin at default level.

The reason for this is I have built a bespoke stock integration which will overwrite the default values regularly.

I will populate the fields at "store view" level.

Things I have tried:

$installer->updateAttribute('catalog_product', 'name', 'readonly', 1);
$installer->updateAttribute('catalog_product', 'name', 'is_readonly', 1);
$installer->updateAttribute('catalog_product', 'name', 'disabled', 1);
$installer->updateAttribute('catalog_product', 'name', 'is_disabled', 1);

I understand that if this is possible I may not be able to make new products within Magento. I am ok with this due to the fact all sku's should be imported from our stock management.

Answer 1

This question / answers pointed me in the right direction:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6384120/magento-read-only-and-hidden-product-attributes

This function:

public function lockAttributes($observer) {
  $event = $observer->getEvent();
  $product = $event->getProduct();
  $product->lockAttribute('attribute_code');
}

in this observer:

catalog_product_edit_action

Then use the product object to find the store id:

$event = $observer->getEvent();
$product = $event->getProduct();
if ($product->getStoreId() == 0) {
  $product->lockAttribute('name');
}

This will only disable the attribute at the default store level.