Allow GenericForeignKey Custom Object Type Fields

[mrmrcoleman]

Plugin Version

commit 722bbd6 (HEAD -> public-preview, origin/public-preview) Author: btiemann btiemann@netboxlabs.com Date: Thu Jun 26 15:31:01 2025 -0400

Proposed functionality

Multiple Private Preview participants have requested the ability to use GenericForeignKeys for Custom Object Type fields

• Currently Custom Object Type fields can only point to one type
• It is common for users to to want to model "polymorphic" type behaviour. e.g. a Custom Object Type "dataflow" with fields of type Multiobject but that could point to either IPAddresses, IPRanges, or Prefixes

Note We should add an index across the fields https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox/blob/develop/docs/development/extending-models.md

Use case

• User creates a Custom Object Type X
• User adds a field Y of type Object or MultiObject
• User can select one or more related types instead of just one

External dependencies

No response

[linear]

NPL-362 Allow GenericForeignKey Custom Object Type Fields

Plugin Version

commit 722bbd6 (HEAD -> public-preview, origin/public-preview) Author: btiemann btiemann@netboxlabs.com Date: Thu Jun 26 15:31:01 2025 -0400

Proposed functionality

Multiple Private Preview participants have requested the ability to use GenericForeignKeys for Custom Object Type fields

• Currently Custom Object Type fields can only point to one type
• It is common for users to to want to model "polymorphic" type behaviour. e.g. a Custom Object Type "dataflow" with fields of type Multiobject but that could point to either IPAddresses, IPRanges, or Prefixes

Use case

• User creates a Custom Object Type X
• User adds a field Y of type Object or MultiObject
• User can select one or more related types instead of just one

External dependencies

No response

[mrmrcoleman]

A good example of why this is desirable can be found in the ACLs plugin: https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox-acls

The ACL Assignment model can attach an ACL to either a device interface, or a VM interface, there are many more examples of this pattern.