Asset types

Admin › Assets › Types lists the kinds of assets you track: Laptop, Chromebook, Tablet, Projector, Cart. Every asset has one. Types are how people filter the Assets list and break reports down, and how depreciation schedules pick which devices they cover.

Which picture a device shows#

Every device in the Assets list, on its own page, in My devices and on tickets shows one picture, chosen in this order:

1. Its own photo, when someone uploaded one on the device.
2. Its model's picture (Admin › Assets › Models).
3. Its manufacturer's logo (Admin › Assets › Manufacturers).
4. Its asset type's picture: the one uploaded here, else the built-in picture schoolOS has for the type's name (a laptop for "Chromebook", a projector for "Projector"), else a plain device.

So a Chromebook with no photo shows its model's picture if the model has one, the manufacturer's logo if not, and the laptop picture otherwise. The choice is made as the list loads, so it costs nothing to show.

To give many models one picture at once, search for them on Admin › Assets › Models ("iPad", say), select them all, and choose Set picture in the toolbar: the picture is uploaded once and every selected model shows it. The same works for manufacturers and for the types here. Remove their pictures clears the selected ones, so they fall back to the next picture in the order above.

Global and your own#

• Global types are set up by schoolOS for every account. You can use them, but not change or delete them.
• Types your account added show your account's name in Visibility. Only your account sees them.

A type of your own can't share a name with another of yours, ignoring capitalization. It can share one with a Global type, which leaves two types that look alike in every list, so pick a different name.

Imports add types too: a type name in your file that you don't have yet is added for your account. See Import assets.

How many types?#

A type is the broadest way to split your assets. Make a type for each kind of device you'd want to count, filter or replace on its own schedule:

| Choose | When | | --- | --- | | A Global type | One already fits. Use it rather than adding a lookalike, so your devices don't end up split across two types with one name. | | A type of your own | Nothing fits, like "Hotspot" or "Document Camera", or you need to tell two kinds apart that a Global type lumps together. | | A model instead | The difference is only make or model, like Dell 3100 and Lenovo 100e Chromebooks. Keep them one type and let models tell them apart. |

For example, a district that refreshes Chromebooks every four years and laptops every five keeps Chromebook and Laptop as separate types, so a depreciation schedule can target each. Its three Chromebook models stay under the one Chromebook type, and a filter on it counts the whole 1:1 fleet.

Who can use it#

• View asset types (asset-types.view) opens the page. Without Manage asset types, a note says your access is view-only.
• Manage asset types (asset-types.edit) adds, changes and deletes your account's types.

Search and filter#

• Search asset types... matches the name, the description and the account name, ignoring capitalization, anywhere in them. Typing "global" finds the Global types. Add a * to match from the start instead: Chrome* finds "Chromebook".
• Filter › Visibility shows only Global types, or only your own (Account). It filters the whole list, and the page count and total follow it. Remove the filter to see both again.

The table#

Types are in alphabetical order, Global and yours together, 20 to a page. Rows per page shows 50 or 100 instead. The columns:

• Name, with the type's picture: the one the Assets list and device pages draw for it, or the picture you uploaded.
• Description. A dash when there isn't one.
• Visibility. Global, or your account's name.
• Created. The day it was added.
• The … menu at the end of a row has Edit and Delete. You see it only on types you can change.
• Select several of your types and the toolbar offers Set picture: one picture for all of them (Which picture a device shows).

Select Name, Description, Visibility or Created to sort the whole list by it, not just the page you're on. Columns hides or reorders the columns, and dragging a column's edge resizes it; both are kept in this browser. The arrows under the table move between pages.

Add an asset type#

1. Select New asset type.
2. Type the Type name, up to 120 characters, and a description if you like, up to 500.
3. Picture (optional). Choose a picture (PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP, up to 2 MB). Without one, the built-in picture for the name shows: "Chromebook" gets a laptop, "Projector" a projector, anything schoolOS doesn't know a plain device. The uploaded picture shows on this page now; the Assets list and device pages still draw the built-in one for the time being.
4. Select Add asset type, or press Enter in the name. Cancel or Escape closes it without saving.

Use the name people say out loud. "Chromebook" is easier to filter by than "Student Device Tier 2".

Change an asset type#

Select a row of your own, or Edit in its … menu. Change the name, description or picture (Change picture, or Remove to go back to the built-in one), then select Save changes.

A rename updates every asset of that type, and your models that name it, at once. Depreciation schedules that target the type keep covering it, because they point at the type itself, not its name.

Delete an asset type#

Open the … menu on one of your types, select Delete and confirm. The type disappears from this list and from the lists people pick from.

A type your assets use can't be deleted outright. Instead, … is in use says how many of your assets have it, and View the … assets opens Assets filtered to that type. Move them to another type with a bulk edit and then delete it, or merge it, below.

Merge a duplicate#

When two types are the same kind of device ("Chromebook" and "Chromebooks"), or you want every asset of one type moved to another in one step, merge the one you don't want into the one you keep:

1. Open the … menu on the type, select Delete and confirm. … is in use opens.
2. Under Merge into another asset type, search for and pick the one to keep.
3. Select Merge into ….

Every asset of the duplicate becomes the type you picked, the manufacturers and models filed under it move across, and depreciation schedules that targeted the duplicate target the kept type instead. Then the duplicate is deleted. It all happens at once: if anything fails, nothing changes. The merge can't be undone, and it's recorded in the audit log.

You can merge into another of your account's types or into a Global one, never into another account's. Merging needs Manage asset types.