How to disable the multi category edit form

Question

I do not wish my users to be able to edit category entries. I have hidden the category fields via the publish layout however they can still access the categories via the multi entry category editor by choosing either Add or Remove categories.

The users do not have any permissions to add/edit categories themselves but I wish to stop them assigning their own categories to their news articles.

Is there any way of disabling this functionality either natively or via a 3rd party extension. I use Better Workflow but this bypasses all of the draft/publish checks.

Answer 1

After much exploration it doesn't look like this is possible via any existing add-on or natively. I resorted to editing the core file specifically in /system/expressionengine/controllers/cp/content_edit.php adding a check for the member group as to whether to show the multi category editor on a per member group basis.

Answer 2

Not sure why you even have categories available if people aren't able to assign entries to them, but if you don't want people doing anything categories related, why not create a publish layout which has the categories tab removed completely?

Answer 3

You will find under each member groups permissions the ability to lock out each group from being able to edit/add categories: http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/cp/members/member_groups_edit.html