Hi Anthony,

for #1, you might want to check out the columnmodelcustomize event on EditorGridPanel. this is called when the server returns w/ column metadata. it provides an array of columns, I believe. you can iterate that array, find the columns you want to hide and set 'hidden: true' on them. you can do a similar trick with the store using the 'metachange' event. in general it's often better to set metadata at this lower level, for example, if you plan to share this store between components; however, you're almost certainly ok using columnmodelchange for this case.

for #2, i might suggest listening for the store's update or add event. on update or add, you can modify the record and set the value for whichever fields you need. when doing this, be careful you first suspendEvents(), then resumeEvents() on the store before setting those fields or you may get yourself into a never ending loop.