bug? Get Asset Information - attributes empty

[Gareth Cantrell]

I have been trying to use the "Get Asset Information" automation for a custom asset button, however, the "External Source" and "External ID" attributes are always returned empty, even though they have values set in the database.

I want the auto-task to perform slightly different operations if the asset is from an external source as opposed to manually entered, however without these attributes getting set, this is not possible.

[Gareth Cantrell]

In addition, it appears that the following attributes never get set either, even though there is data in the corresponding database fields:

• Created Date
• Last Updated Date
• Last Updated By
• Record State

[GJ06]

@Gareth Cantrell I'm also playing with Assets in work flows at the moment where I really want the asset to be centre of the request, I'm trying to return the UsedBy variables to change the customer of the ticket but in testing I was also getting empty results. 

[GJ06]

Timeline update using:

Asset used by ID: &[global["flowcoderefs"]["getBasicAssetInformation"]["usedById"]]
Asset used by name: &[global["flowcoderefs"]["getBasicAssetInformation"]["usedByName"]]

Returns nothing from a Get basic asset info node

[Gareth Cantrell]

@GJ06 I think "Owned By" is the attribute to be looking at as Used By could be a list of multiple users in the case of shared assets.

Also, one thing I noticed is that the "Task Type" needs to be specific to the type of asset you're looking to get information for.

I do this using the below BPM flow, and setting the "Result Reference" for each automation to getAssetInfo which I can then use later in the workflow, regardless of which node actually set the result.

In the "Yes" outcome, I use a custom express to check if the "Asset Id" of the corresponding Get Asset node is set.

 

[GJ06]

oooh that's really interesting, thanks, I'll have a play and report my findings.

[GJ06]

@Gareth Cantrell, we don't use "Owned By" because of the connotations associated with the wording.... It's started a new debate in our department .
I've been more specific with the get task to get Computer System but still get null fields for "Used By", tested with a couple of other fields as well and they provide no data.

[Steve Giller]

1 hour ago, GJ06 said:

we don't use "Owned By" because of the connotations associated with the wording

Just change the wording ...

[GJ06]

The main issue now @Steve Giller is we have around 19000 end users devices using the wrong field in the asset table, so need to formulate so sort of plan

 

[Steve Giller]

Personally I'd consider exporting the data to csv, making the changes there, and then updating the assets by re-importing using the Asset Import Tool

[Ben Maddams]

I'm having the same issue in - 

Just asking if a solution for the missing fields was ever provided.

Thanks,

 

Ben

[Gareth Cantrell]

@Ben Maddams If you're only using this auto task on a particular asset class, you need to use the corresponding task, eg. Computer Asset, Computer Peripheral Asset, etc.

If you're using a single auto task and want to get the asset info for any asset class, see my example above with the decision tree.

 

[Ben Maddams]

Thanks Gareth, will give that a go and report back.

 

-B

[CraigP]

Just out of curiosity, may I ask how you're all retrieving the asset ID in the first place for use in BPMs and/or autotask?

[Gareth Cantrell]

@CraigP When creating an Auto Task for use in a custom button on the Asset view, selecting "Asset" as the Entity type in the "Manage process settings" section will enable an "assetId" input parameter.

When creating the custom button in the Assets view, use the variable picker in the "assetId" field to select the asset id which will pass the asset's ID into the auto task.