KACE Product Support

Hello there,

I’m having trouble understanding the usage of custom views in the asset tab. I've done much reading and searching to find answers but I've yet to find one.

I've created different asset types for the different types of assets we want to track; projectors, printers, smart phones, smart boards, etc.

Now to show the problem I have with the asset views, here is a simple usage case. We have a specific brand of smartboards that are failing all the time. Now I would like to do either of the following:

• Create a view of boards over a specified age.
  
• Create a view of boards of a specific type.
  

Now my problem is, I can’t seem to make a view to do this. If I go to the asset tab and change the "view by" to asset type->smartboards I see the smart boards and a custom view tab I can use to make views. When I create the custom view, it does what its suppose to do. It shows only smart boards that meet the conditions of the view. The problem is when I try to use the view later. When I go to the asset tab, then change the "view by" to Custom view->My view it shows all assets that meet the conditions of that view, not just the smartboards. If I change the view type to smartboards, then select the custom view, the same thing happes. This is not what I want. There is no view filter option to limit the view to a specific view type.

What gets me is that it works the first time when you create it. It's only when you go back to the view later that it doesn’t work.

I know reports could probably get me the list of boards, but that’s not what I’m looking for. I want to see all the smartboard assets that match the view, and then edit them.

The other "view" problem with assets is when using parent - child relationships (asset based field). Usage case here would be location. The documentation gives using rooms in building in different cities as an example to using the asset location field. Actually using it for that purpose tho is quite difficult.

Example, say you have two rooms called "Room 1" in two different buildings. The problem with the parent child relationship is you have trouble choosing the right one since you can’t see the parent of that item. There is just two "Room 1"'s listed, and you hope for the best that you choose the right one. You then have to check after adding it, if it was the right one by looking into the asset you just made, then following the parent link. The lack of bulk edit just amplifies this problem.

What needs to happen is the asset type field needs to be able to show you the parent of the assets in the list and/or the details of the assets in the list. This way you can see that the "room 1" you’re choosing is at the building you want.