Implemented

Mandatory Custom Properties

I would like the ability to make certain custom properties mandatory when creating a node.  We have alerts and reports based off custom properties like city, department, and region but sometimes they are not filled out when adding a new node.  It would be very useful to be able to flag specific custom properties as required fields before a new node could be added.

  • If I do not select the mandatory property when adding nodes, or editing then it does not supply a value. I believe it does stay unknown.

    I actually double checked, and confirmed after editing a node - still in unknown, the drop down untouched said NONE... and that is not configured as an option.

    *If you have a test environment, you may check and try manually adjusting a test node value from the DB manager. Or check a newly added node for a NULL/None Value rather than the first option in your list*

        Just be careful in the DB manager if you are unfamiliar - this is why I suggest a test dev/test setup, rather than your production (at least backup your DB)

  • "Unfortunately this is not the case if the values are supplied via drop down lists, Solarwinds preselects the first item in each drop down list.
    So now rather than users saving nodes with blank Custom Property fields they typically save nodes with incorrect data in these fields. I think this is even worse as it harder to find."

    Still this feature needs proper fix, as said earlier if we don't do selection in case of custom property with drop down list SolarWinds preselects the first item on the list, and also this case is same for custom property with "YES/NO".

  • Even still I would never be sure of how my systems are working if I did not test it in my own environment. I have concluded the same results.

    Thanks for your update!

  • Hi

    I think that you misunderstood what I wrote earlier (or more probably I wasn't very clear).

    I have just tested editing an existing node with an EMPTY (i.e. NULL)  mandatory custom property. The field was populated with the first item from the drop down list AND this was saved when I clicked Done.


    I didn't intend to say that all mandatory Custom Props are changed, just empty ones. They pick up the first item in the dropdown list.

    Why do we have empty fields that we now consider mandatory you may ask. This is historical. I need to work through these and populate the fields with meaningful data (many thousands of nodes). In the meantime, I could do without Solarwinds populating them with rubbish.
    So, for example, yesterday, with a number of Node Custom Props set to mandatory (using drop down lists), I simply changed the poller on a node. I got far more changes that I bargained for!
    For now, I have turned off all mandatory settings. They cause too many problems.


    When a field is not "Mandatory", the first entry in the drop down list is "None", which sets the value to NULL. This selection should be available (although obviously not valid) for Mandatory fields as the first item in the list. If selected of course, changes should not be committed and a warning issued re the invalid value.

  • Vote for this one - https://thwack.solarwinds.com/ideas/5245#comment-201174

    and this is what I found after a little testing

    -> and Editing a Node - the mandatory custom property does not change. It does NOT default back to choice 1. It holds your selection.

    You can setup the custom property and not apply it to any node - BUT the FIRST time you edit that node, the Mandatory Custom Properties will all have the 1st choice selected.

    * This needs to be blank, and hit the red flag to make the user select what option needs to be there for that Custom Property*

    ** When creating the choices for the Drop down Menu -> I tried to create a blank option - no spaces just blank and it gave a red flag.  IT DID however let me leave a SPACE ' ' in for the option, but when  the list was saved it removed the ' ' space from an option in the drop down menu.

  • Ouch, thanks for the heads up.. I think I shall be checking this out shortly.

  • The "Required Custom Properties" option is now available in 11.5. Great you may think. Users will now have to think about supplying values for all important Custom Property fields when adding a node.
    Unfortunately this is not the case if the values are supplied via drop down lists, Solarwinds preselects the first item in each drop down list.
    So now rather than users saving nodes with blank Custom Property fields they typically save nodes with incorrect data in these fields. I think this is even worse as it harder to find.

    I also noticed that when editing an existing node, all empty mandatory fields are populated with the first items in drop down lists. This is unexpected & I believe unwanted behaviour.

    For Custom Props that are marked as mandatory and that are populated from drop down lists, could you please add a change to make the first item in the list blank?  

  • If you check out the new beta (NPM 12.0 BETA4 + QOE NOW AVAILABLE) Mandatory CPs make an appearance. emoticons_wink.png

  • I'm excited about the prospect of this feature becoming available.

    By designating specific custom properties as mandatory, one could have at least their default value added to the node when it gets added.

    Regular running of the "rat reports" to check for accuracy would still be needed, but at leat the must-have items could have a chance of being there to support production monitoring, reporting and things like automated ticketing.