Adding & Editing Assets

Adding & Editing Assets

Every asset record in Safekeep is created and maintained through one modal form — opened as Add entry, Edit, or Clone. This page walks the form top to bottom: every field in on-screen order, how picking an Asset Model auto-fills defaults, how the Category swaps the Additional fields section in and out, what the Duplicate count does in Clone mode, and exactly what gets logged when you save an edit.

One modal, three modes

Field reference (on-screen order)

Only two fields are hard-required: Title and Category (both enforced client-side and server-side; a missing required field shows "This field is required."). Everything else is optional — but the more you fill in, the more the reports, exports, and reminder widgets can do for you. All dropdowns are searchable Select2 controls with a "-" blank first option unless noted.

Model defaults — what picking an Asset Model fills in

The Asset Model catalog is the "product template" layer. When you pick a model in the form:

1. Category and Brand default in — but never overwrite

   The form immediately fetches the model's defaults and fills Category and Brand only if those fields are still blank. Anything you already selected is left alone. The server repeats the same blank-only defaulting on save, so the rule holds even if JavaScript missed it.

2. The category swap pulls in the model's custom fields

   If the model's category was applied, the Additional fields section re-renders with that category's field schema — you may suddenly see new inputs appear mid-form. That's expected.

3. Depreciation and EOL stay on the model

   There is no depreciation or EOL field on the asset form — a model records its Depreciation profile and EOL (months) in the catalog. Note, however, that the monthly depreciation job and the Depreciation schedule report read a per-asset depreciation link that no screen currently sets (it can only be set directly in the database) — so picking a model does not, by itself, put the asset on the depreciation schedule.

The "Additional fields" section (custom fields)

Below the Category row, the form renders the section heading "Additional fields" whenever the selected category has a bound fieldset. Change the category and the whole block is torn down and rebuilt from the new category's compiled field schema — values already saved on the asset are re-filled where the field keys match. If the new category has no custom fields, the section disappears entirely.

How each field type renders

Fields marked required in the fieldset show a trailing * after their label. All values are stored together in the asset's meta JSON, keyed by each field's stable field key. While the form is open, swapping categories back and forth re-fills matching fields from the saved values — but once you save under a different category, only that category's fields are kept and the other saved values are discarded.

Validation messages (exact)

Clone mode & the Duplicate count

1. Open the Clone form

   On the Browse tab, open the row's hamburger menu and choose "Clone". The usual form opens pre-filled from the source asset, with one extra field at the very top: "Duplicate" (number, minimum 1, default 1).

2. Adjust the copy and set the count

   Edit any fields you want the copies to carry (a shared title, model, location…), then set Duplicate to the number of copies you need.

3. Save — N brand-new assets are created

   Save loops that many times, creating N fresh rows, then reloads the whole table with the toast "The record has been saved." Cloned rows are ordinary new creations: no change log, no lifecycle events, and each is stamped with you as creator.

What happens when you save

• Validation first: Title and Category must be present (Category must be a real pick); the Additional fields are validated as above. Permission is re-checked server-side — asset_create for new, asset_update for edits.
• Success toast: "The record has been saved." If you opened the form from the asset detail page, the page reloads after about a second; from the registry, the table row is added or updated in place (Clone reloads the whole table).
• Photo persisted: any temp-uploaded image is moved to the asset's permanent file path and its filename stored on the record.
• Description pinned: the Description is stored as a static, non-deletable comment on the asset — on every save, so repeated edits accumulate pinned description entries in the comment stream.

The edit change log

When you save an edit, the controller compares old vs. new values and writes one change-log line per changed field. These appear as static comments in the asset's comment stream on the detail page (they are not Activity-timeline events, and they cannot be deleted). The messages read, with the value in bold:

Deleting an asset

From the registry row menu, "Delete" (needs asset_delete) asks for confirmation and then soft-deletes the record — it disappears from all lists, tabs, exports, and reports, with the toast "The record has been deleted." There is no in-app restore screen, so treat delete as final; prefer setting an Archived status label for retired-but-remembered equipment.

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