I work for a k-12 school district and I’m not sure if this is an expect behavior but this is what I’m seeing when trying to do a bulk update of CI items (we are currently using CIs for our entire inventory instead of assets, but we are slowly trying to get the assets issues resolved). And the options for bulk updates on the CI page is for only Asset Status. I have a spreadsheet made for creating our inventory assets. It contains 18 columns for the data points that we try to keep track of. They are as follows: AssetTag*, Serial Number*, Location, Room, Manufacturer, Model Name, Owner, Asset Status*, Funding Source, Purchased Date, Purchased Price, PO Number, Deployed Date, Warranty Expiration Date, Last Inventory Date, Notes, OCB Tag, OCM Tag. * = Required fields for in the asset form.
This means that I have the Import CIs from a delimited file page set up for importing new devices and all 18 columns are mapped. Then if I use that same setup and spreadsheet to do bulk updates. Updating only the Building and room number. Simulating a deployment of a class set of devices. My hope was that if I used the AssetID as the unique key then it would just update the fields that have data in it. However, it appears to remove data from certain fields (Serial Number, Building, Owner, and Notes) instead of just updating the fields that have data in them from the CSV.
I have included images of one of the test device right after it was created, then again after it was “updated.” As well as the device creation csv and the device update csv so that you can see exactly what I’m seeing and using.
If this is the expected behavior, what does everyone else do to run bulk updates for CIs that need these types of bulk updates? Also, if this is the expected behavior, I will be putting in a request for templates on the Import CIs from a delimited file page. That I don’t have to keep changing the configuration for 18 lines of data every time I have to run a bulk update and then again when I have to just run a bulk update. Or the ability to add fields that can be bulk updated directly from the CI items page.
