Safe4 Asset Register: Creating and Defining Attributes
Referring back to the design exercise mentioned in the previous section of this guide, it was established that the actual levels where asset records are to be placed were:
- Bank
- Mortgage
- Smartphone
- Computer
It is now necessary to decide how these particular types of asset will be identified. This is done by defining attributes, which will constitute the fields that will appear on-screen for users to enter and maintain information about their assets. To identify these particular assets the attributes to be set up for all of the asset types will be:
- Bank: Bank name, account holder, account number, sort code
- Mortgage: Lender, account number, property address, completion date
- Smartphone: Manufacturer, model, serial number, username, password
- Computer: Manufacturer, model, serial number, username, password
Attributes can be applied to multiple asset types. For the financial types in this example, both require an account number field – this attribute thus needs to be defined only once, and then applied to both types. For the devices, their attributes will be identical and so can be set up once only and applied to each type.
To create an attribute, click the Attributes link on the provider home page, and then click Add Attribute. This will display the Add Attribute dialog box:
Name: In this example the attribute has been called Bank Name. This is used for display purposes, and can include a normal range of alpha and numeric characters and spaces.
Internal Name: This is the name that will be used by the Safe4 Application Programming Interface. This field will be completed automatically by Safe4. Hence it is not necessary for any entry to be made here.
Type: This is a drop-down list and offers 7 options. Only 3 have been used in this section of the Guide: Text, Number and Date. The appropriate type should be selected. Detailed information on the other options is given in the section headed Attribute Definitions.
Extra: This field is used to manage the selections that will be offered when the Drop-Down attribute option is used, and does not need to be completed at this stage.
If this process is completed for all of the attributes required, the resulting list will show a total of 12 attributes:
With the asset types and attributes defined, it is now possible to associate the types with the attributes that relate to them.
