Asset forms and their hierarchy

As an asset manager, you must plan and organize asset data while making sure that customization of asset forms and importing of asset data from external sources is performed efficiently without duplication.  To achieve this goal, you must first understand how asset forms inherit fields.

Scenario

Customization of asset forms at Apex Global

Garth, an asset manager at Apex Global, wants to organize the asset data efficiently and also make sure that there is no duplication when asset data is imported from external sources. To achieve these objectives, Garth wants to understand how the custom fields that he adds to the forms are going to be inherited. Knowing the hierarchy of forms with respect to inheritance of fields helps him strategize for adding custom fields.

Garth wants to add a field that will be inherited across all the CIs in CMDB. Garth refers to the CMDB Common Data Model diagram to understand that the fields in the the BMC.CORE:BMC_BaseElement form are inherited by all the classes. He adds the new field to the BMC.CORE:BMC_BaseElement form by using the Class Manager. Similarly, Garth adds a few custom fields in the AST:Attributes form so that they can be manually added to all the other asset forms.

To verify that a child form has inherited a specific field, he opens the child form in  Developer Studio and views the join information of that field.

See the following sections to learn more about asset forms and how asset forms inherit fields.

Related topics

Modifying CMDB classes and synchronizing the data with ITSM applications

BMC CMDB Common Data Model Diagram

Creating join forms

Adding-custom-fields-to-the-Asset-View

Managing-assets-and-CIs

Asset forms and the AST:Attributes form

Asset forms are join forms that inherit fields from the following forms:

  • Forms that represent the configuration items (CIs)
    For example, forms such as BMC.CORE:BMC_ApplicationSystem and BMC.CORE:BMC_Memory. CI forms contain data that is mainly technical in nature, usually discoverable, and helps determine dependencies and impact. For example, the BMC.CORE:BMC_ApplicationSystem form contains fields that hold information such as build number, patch number, and service pack.
  • AST:Attributes form
    This form contains data that is required for managing assets. The AST:Attributes form contains fields that store information such as purchase date, cost, vendor, team associated with the asset, and tag number.

The AST:Attributes form contains all the information that is usually not discoverable and is related to management of assets. The fields in the AST:Attributes form are required for various  BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management use cases.  For example, the PurchaseDate field or the TagNumber field contains data that is required for various asset management workflows and processes in BMC Helix ITSM: Asset Management. These AST:Attributes form fields are inherited by the other asset forms to create a join form named AST:<assetName>. 

The following screenshot shows an AST:Attributes form and its fields. 

image-2023-9-12_10-13-8.png

Hierarchy of asset forms

Before you can effectively plan adding any custom fields or importing asset data from external sources, you must understand the hierarchy of forms. Depending on which form you add the custom field to, the field is inherited by forms that are lower in the hierarchy.

The following graphic explains the hierarchy of forms by using the example of forms representing a computer system:

image-2023-9-15_10-14-35.png

From the example graphic, you can understand the following aspects of the hierarchy:

  • BMC.CORE:BMC_ComputerSystem is a join form that inherits fields from the BMC.Core:BMC_BaseElement form and the BMC.CORE:BMC_ComputerSystem_ form.
    To understand this hierarchy better, download and view the CDM Diagram available at BMC CMDB Common Data Model Diagram. 
  • AST:ComputerSystem form inherits fields from the BMC.CORE:BMC_ComputerSystem and the AST:Attributes form.
    If you add any custom fields to the AST:Attributes form, you can add them to the other asset forms.

Join information in asset forms

The join information of a form is viewable in the form properties. The name of the form from which fields are inherited is displayed in the Join Information of the form. 

For example, in the AST:Application form, the join information shows that the value of Form Name is AST:Attributes for the System Role field which is inherited from the AST:Attributes form.
The following screenshot shows an example of this scenario:
image-2023-9-14_15-36-53.png

Where to go from here

To learn more about the adding custom fields to asset forms, see Adding-custom-fields-to-the-Asset-View.

 

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