Custom fields only showing by Role, Type or tags

[chesronw]

NetBox version

V3.3.5

Feature type

New functionality

Proposed functionality

It would be nice that we can define the custom fields based on for example the type or role of a device.
At this moment you can add a custom field only to a specific module in Netbox.

If there is a possibility to add an extra filter on the custom field that will be very helpful to add an custom field only for specific modules where needed.

Use case

In this use case we want to add a custom field to define the support level of a switch.
To add this custom field we can add a custom field for the module "Device" (See example below)

The problem with this is that this custom field is add to all another devices that are created.
Not every device needs this custom field. Or for other departments than the network team needs that custom field.

That is the reason that it would be nice if we have an sub filter to only show the custom field based by the role or something like that.

Database changes

No response

External dependencies

No response

[candlerb]

Custom fields are generic - a given custom field can be linked to almost any type of object - so I don't think it makes sense to filter on Device Role or Device Type (unless "Role" were to be made completely generic and shared by all objects - there are quite a few which have some sort of "Role" already).

However, tags are also generic. Therefore, it should in principle be straightforward to bind a custom field to tags as well as object types, so that it's only displayed if an object has a particular tag present.

I'm not sure what should happen to CF data if the tag is subsequently removed from an object. Either you always display non-empty CF data; or you have to delete the custom field data when the tag is removed (dangerous); or you have to prevent the removal of the tag from an object if there is non-empty related CF data present (probably the safest option).

[github-actions]

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[jeremystretch]

I'm not sure what should happen to CF data if the tag is subsequently removed from an object. Either you always display non-empty CF data; or you have to delete the custom field data when the tag is removed (dangerous); or you have to prevent the removal of the tag from an object if there is non-empty related CF data present (probably the safest option).

The need to conditionally enable or disable custom fields based on some other object attribute is a clear signal that you've outgrown the functionality provided by custom fields, and should instead pursue a purpose-built extension to NetBox's data model via a custom plugin. Trying to hack something together using custom fields is only going to ultimately cost you more time and effort while delivering a subpar solution.