Manufacturers

Admin › Assets › Manufacturers lists the companies that make your devices: Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo. Every model belongs to a manufacturer, and each asset can name one, so people can filter and report by brand.

Global and your own#

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

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

Who can use it#

• View manufacturers (manufacturers.view) opens the page. Without Manage manufacturers, a note says your access is view-only.
• Manage manufacturers (manufacturers.edit) adds your own and changes them.
• Delete manufacturers (manufacturers.delete) deletes your own.

Search#

Search manufacturers... matches the name, the description and the account name, ignoring capitalization, anywhere in them. Add a * to match from the start instead: Len* finds "Lenovo".

Filters#

Filter narrows the list, across every page of it, and the count under the table follows:

• Visibility. Global or Account (your own).
• Asset type. One or more asset types: manufacturers of your assets of that type.
• Models. Has models or No models, counting the Global models and your own.
• Usage. Has assets or Unused, counting your account's assets.

Filters combine with each other and with search. They're kept in the page's address, so a filtered list can be bookmarked or shared, and Clear search and filters under an empty result starts over.

The table#

20 to a page. Rows per page shows 50 or 100 instead. The columns:

• Name, with the manufacturer's logo when it has one: the one schoolOS ships for well-known makers, or the one you uploaded.
• Visibility. Global, or your account's name.
• Description. A dash when there isn't one.
• The … menu at the end of a row has Edit and Delete. You see it only on manufacturers you can change.
• Select several of your manufacturers and the toolbar offers Set picture: one logo for all of them, uploaded once. A device with no photo and no model picture shows its manufacturer's logo; see Which picture a device shows.

Select Name, Visibility or Description 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 a manufacturer#

1. Select New manufacturer.
2. Type the Manufacturer name and, if you like, a Description.
3. Logo (optional). Choose a picture (PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP, up to 2 MB). Well-known makers show the logo schoolOS ships until you add your own.
4. Select Add manufacturer, or Cancel to close without saving.

Before adding one, search for it: if a Global manufacturer already has the name, use that one, so your devices group with everyone's under one name.

Change a manufacturer#

Select one of your rows, or Edit in its … menu. Change the name, description or logo (Change picture, or Remove), and select Save changes. A rename carries through to its models and to every asset that names it. Two of your manufacturers can't share a name.

Delete a manufacturer#

Open the … menu on one of yours, select Delete and confirm. It's deleted for good.

A manufacturer in use can't be deleted. Instead, … is in use says how many of your assets use it (deleted assets that still record it count too) and how many models belong to it. View the … assets opens Assets filtered to that manufacturer, so you can move them one by one or with a bulk edit. Or merge it, below.

Merge a duplicate#

When two manufacturers are the same company ("Dell" and "Dell Inc."), merge the one you don't want into the one you keep:

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

Every asset, model and part that used the duplicate moves to the one you picked, and the duplicate is deleted, all at once: if anything fails, nothing changes. A model both have by the same name becomes one model when both models are your account's. Your model doesn't fold into a Global model with its name: it moves across as it is, and you can merge the two on Admin › Assets › Models. The merge can't be undone, and it's recorded in the audit log.

You can merge into another of your account's manufacturers or into a Global one, never into another account's. Merging needs Delete manufacturers.

Merge, move, or rename?#

| Choose | What happens | When | | --- | --- | --- | | Merge | Every asset, model and part moves to the manufacturer you keep, in one step, and the duplicate is deleted. | Both are the same company under two spellings: "Dell" and "Dell Inc.", or your own "Apple" and the Global one. | | Move the assets, then delete | You pick where each asset goes, with a bulk edit on Assets. Delete its models too, since a manufacturer with models can't be deleted. | They aren't really the same company, and the assets belong under different ones. | | Rename | Only the name changes. Its models and assets follow. | There's one manufacturer, and its name is just misspelled or out of date. |

For example, after a first import a district finds 212 devices under its own "Dell Inc." and 3,400 under the Global "Dell". Merging "Dell Inc." into "Dell" moves all 212, with their models, and every Dell device now sits under one name in filters and reports. If your "Latitude 3190" now sits beside a Global "Latitude 3190", merge that model too.