Asset Type Layouts

🧩 Asset type layouts - a page that fits the kind of asset

Every asset in FreeITSM used to get the same page: CPU, memory, operating system and BIOS on Key info, and a Devices and a Software tab beside it - which is what a Windows PC needs, and nothing a monitor, a dock or a switch ever has. On a monitor those boxes were always empty, and an empty box cannot tell you whether the information does not apply or was never collected.

Now each asset type decides which built-in details and tabs its assets show, and in what order the tabs come. A monitor gets a short, focused page; a laptop looks exactly as it always did.

Requested by @Dr4inder in #200. This is part A of the design; inventory freshness, connected assets and reconciliation review come later.

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🧭 At a glance

Where	Assets → Settings → Asset types, edit a type, Layout
Who	Anyone with the Manage asset types permission (the same one that adds and renames types)
What it changes	Which Key info sections and tabs an asset of that type shows on its page, and the order of the tabs
What it never changes	What is stored. The agent, Intune, imports and the REST API keep writing and returning every field; the table view and search are untouched
Existing installs	Nothing changes until you edit a type - every type starts with everything shown

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🖱️ Setting a type's layout

1. Open Assets → Settings → Asset types and click edit on a type - say Monitor.

2. Under Layout, pick a Start from if one fits:

   Start from	Key info shows	Tabs hidden
   Everything (as today)	everything	none
   Peripheral - monitor, dock, headset	Make and model	Devices, Software
   Network equipment - switch, router, firewall	Make and model, Operating system, Reporting	Devices, Software
   Mobile device - phone, tablet	Make and model, Operating system, Reporting, Storage	Devices

   A starting point only fills in the ticks. It is not remembered, nothing is locked, and you can change any tick afterwards.

3. Sections on Key info - untick what the type never has:

   Section	The built-in fields in it
   Make and model	Manufacturer, model
   Hardware	CPU, CPU speed, memory
   Operating system	Operating system, feature release, build number, BIOS version
   Reporting	First seen, last seen
   Storage	Logical and physical drives

   Name, asset tag, serial number, type, status, location and company are always shown. They are how an asset is found, scanned, matched by the agent and reported on, so no layout can hide them.

4. Tabs - untick a tab to hide it, and drag it by its grip, use the ↑ ↓ buttons, or Alt+↑ / Alt+↓ to put the tabs in order. Key info is always first.

5. Save. Every asset of that type follows it straight away.

Your own custom fields are chosen per type exactly as before, under Settings → Custom fields - see Recording anything. Layouts are the other half: the built-in details.

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🙈 Hidden is not deleted

A layout is a display choice and nothing more. That matters in three ways:

• Nothing is lost. Hiding Hardware on a type does not touch a single value. Untick it again and everything is there.

• Inventory keeps arriving. If the agent reports software for a computer whose type hides Software, the software is still recorded - a team may hide it simply to keep the page short and still use the data elsewhere.

• The asset tells you. If an asset holds details its type hides - a computer given the wrong type, say, or Software hidden on computers that still report it - Key info says so:

  Hidden by this type's layout: Hardware, Software (214). Show them

  Show them brings every hidden section and tab back for that asset, each marked with a dashed outline so nobody mistakes it for the type's normal layout. Hide them again puts it back. Nothing is saved either way.

A hidden tab is described as hidden by this type's layout, never as "not applicable": the layout says nothing about what the asset actually has.

If the line is too much

Assets → Settings → Asset types → Details a type hides has one choice, When an asset has details its type hides:

Choice	What the asset page does
Say so on the asset (default)	The line above, naming what is hidden and how many
Only offer a Show hidden link	No line; a quiet Show hidden at the end of the tab strip

Teams that chose their layouts deliberately may find the line noise; teams that inherited a set of types usually want to be told. Either way, Show hidden is always on the asset whenever the type hides anything, so nothing is out of reach.

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🔁 Changing an asset's type

Changing an asset's type on Key info changes which sections and tabs it shows, immediately, and nothing else. Its values, history, documents and custom fields stay exactly as they were - change it back and the page is as it was.

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🏢 Companies

A layout belongs to the type. A shared (global) type has one layout for every company, set from the default company like the type's name; a company that wants a different layout for its own kit makes its own type, which is how types already work on a multi-company install.

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📱 On a phone

The asset page follows the same layout on a phone. The Layout section of the type dialog works there too: the ↑ ↓ buttons are thumb-sized, and a long press on a grip drags.

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❓ Questions

Why can I not hide Manufacturer but keep Model? The built-in details come in natural groups, and switching a group answers the "monitor" case completely. A field-by-field designer for built-in fields would be a second field system beside custom fields, and the two would drift apart. A single-field switch can be added later without redoing this.

Can a type make a built-in field required - a serial number on laptops? Not yet, deliberately. A built-in field is written by the agent and imports as well as by people, and an inventory report must never be refused for a missing value. When completeness checks come, they will refer to the built-in field itself and flag, not refuse - see decision 2.

Why is there no "Projects" count in the hidden line? The Projects tab has no count to read, so it is never named in the line - it still comes back with Show them or Show hidden.

Does the table view follow the layout? No. The table shows every type at once and its columns are each person's own choice; a layout decides what one asset's page shows.

What about the Intune tab? It appears on its own when an asset is matched to an Intune device, after the other tabs, and is not part of a layout.

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See also

• Asset type layouts - Developer Guide
• Asset type profiles, connected assets and inventory freshness - design (#200)
• Recording anything - custom asset fields