Product Updates

New features and product improvements from the team at Assetbots.

Re-Tag Assets Bot Action

Enhancement

A new Bot automation action is available in your Assetbots account!

The Re-Tag Assets action allows you to re-generate the asset tag for one or more of your assets in response to an event, automatically.

This action makes it easier than ever to accomplish some powerful workflows. Here are two examples:

1. Update Tag IDs When Moving to a New Category

As mentioned in our previous update, you can now move your assets to a specific category after syncing them from an MDM or other integration. Now you can also re-tag those assets so that their tag format matches their new category:

Re-Tag assets for new category

Re-Tag assets for new category

2. Bulk Update Tag IDs

Sometimes you want to bulk-update your tag IDs. This could be due to your desired format changing, or because your IDs reflect some ephemeral value like the current year, or any other reason.

This new action lets you easily perform this bulk-update in multiple ways, but one neat one is by applying a label. In the example below, we’ve created a label called Re-Tag and then built a Bot that re-tags assets when the label is applied. The bot them automatically removes the label, so no further action is necessary!

Re-tag assets when a label is applied

Re-tag assets when a label is applied

If you have any questions about this or any other Bot automation action, please open a ticket in your account dashboard and our team will be happy to help.

Happy tracking!

Bot Automation Improvements

Enhancement

Multiple improvements to our Bot automations have been released, making it possible to automate more of your workflows and simplify asset management for you and your team.

New Action: Set Field

A new action type has been added that allows you to set any field on any record to a specific value in response to an event.

This action is extremely powerful, especially when combined with a sync integration like Mosyle, Intune or Kandji.

For example, it is common to want to categorize your assets differently in Assetbots than in your MDM. In Assetbots, you may have categories like 💻 Laptops, 📱 Tablets, and 🖥️ Workstations, but your MDM doesn’t have any matching source data. Now, you can automatically set the category on your synced assets based on any custom criteria you choose.

Categorize Mosyle laptops

Categorize Mosyle laptops

In the example above, we default all devices synced from Mosyle into a custom 🛜 Mosyle category. In our bot, we move any device created in the 🛜 Mosyle category that is a Mac but not an iMac into the 💻 Laptops category. You can easily create additional Bot automations for your 📱 Tablets and 🖥️ Workstations categories.

New Trigger: Created or Edited

You can now create a single Bot automation to react to either Created or Edited triggers, rather than having to create one for Created and one for Edited.

This is useful in combination with an action such as Sync Fields where you want to keep two fields in sync, either in the same record or across records.

Sync Fields Action Improvement

You can now sync a record to itself using our Sync Fields action. Previously, you could only sync a field to a related record, not to the same record the field is sourced from.

This update is useful to sync data from an integration into more than one field. For example, you may want to sync a person’s Email to both their Email field and to a custom Username field.

We’re excited about the new workflows these Bot automation enhancements will unlock for you. If you need any help or have any questions, please open a ticket with our team in your account dashboard.

Happy tracking!

Filter Results in the API

New Feature

Customers using the Assetbots API can now find records more easily using our new filtering support.

Our API has always supported list operations, for finding all records in your database, as well as get operations, for getting specific records by ID. What has been missing until now is filtering list operations, which allow you to get specific records by fields other than their ID.

A common request from customers has been to get an asset by its serial number, or to get a person by their email address. These operations are now possible with this enhancement.

Filtering in the Assetbots API is based on the OData filter options, and while we do not support the complete specification, we support the most common use cases.

To get started, make sure you have generated an API key for your database. To do so, visit Settings > API Keys. You can use our interactive documentation to experiment with your queries as you follow along.

Filters are defined in the $filter query parameter. To construct a filter, you create clauses based on field keys, which are unique to your database. For example, if you have a Text field called Serial Number with key serialNumber, you can find records with Serial Number equal to 123456 with the following filter:

serialNumber eq 123456

Adding this to the query string, the full URL becomes:

https://api.assetbots.com/v1/assets?%24filter=serialNumber%20eq%20123456

You can combine multiple clauses using and and or, and you can use any one of the following comparison operators:

  • eq (equal)
  • gt (greater-than)
  • ge (greater-than-or-equal)
  • lt (less-than)
  • le (less-than-or-equal)
  • nq (not-equal)

Finally, you can use paths if you would like to filter on a nested value. For example, if you would like to find all assets that cost more than $2,500 and you have a Money field with the key cost, you would use:

cost.amount gt 250000

Note in the filter above that we use 250000 instead of 2500. That is because USD is a currency with a scale of 2. You can query your database to see how the currency you use is stored by Assetbots if you’re not using USD.

Filtering is available today in the Assetbots API and can be used with assets, people, and locations.

We hope this enhancement makes working with our API much easier for your organization. If you need any help or have any questions, please open a ticket with our team in your account dashboard.

Happy tracking!

We’re excited to announce the release of our Mosyle OneK12 and Manager integration. Automatically sync Mosyle devices and users into your Assetbots database as assets and people.

This integration also offers the ability to perform two-way syncs of Mosyle device assignments (as checkouts), asset tag IDs and other data, as well as perform device quick actions on Mosyle devices right from Assetbots.

Take a look at our setup guide and connect your Mosyle account to Assetbots today!

A new template is available when generating asset tags for printing: Avery Presta® 94221. This template generates 1" x 2 1/2" tags, 24 per sheet. The template uses US letter sheets with multiple material options available, and can be printed with a standard laser printer.

Avery Presta® 94221 labels can be purchased easily from the US.

Do you have a template you’d like to see added? Please let us know!

We’re excited to announce the release of our Mosyle integration. Automatically sync Mosyle devices and users into your Assetbots database as assets and people.

This integration also offers the ability to perform two-way syncs of Mosyle device assignments (as checkouts), asset tag IDs and other data, as well as perform device quick actions on Mosyle devices right from Assetbots.

Take a look at our setup guide and connect your Mosyle account to Assetbots today!

Sync Fields Bot Automation

New Feature

We’re excited to announce a new Bot automation action: Sync Fields! Adding this action to an automation allows you to automatically sync field data between records involved in the event.

For example, you may want to create a report view in your asset registry to quickly see which assets are in use by each department. To automate this, you can create a Department field on both your Person and Asset records. Then, create a Bot automation to sync the data from the Person record to related Asset records each time assets are checked out.

Here is how to get started:

1. Prepare Your Fields

Ensure the fields you want to sync are created and compatible on each record you want to sync data between. Compatible in this case means they hold the same type of data (e.g., Date fields can sync to other Date fields). In our example, we create Department fields on our Person and Asset records.

Create a Department field

Create a Department field

2. Create a Bot

Create a new Bot automation or edit an existing one to add a Sync Fields action in response to a relevant trigger. In our example, we create a new Bot that is triggered when a Checkout is Checked Out and sync fields from the Checkout Person to the Assets in Checkout.

Sync Fields action

Sync Fields action

3. Data is Synced Automatically

Our asset registry now has the Department field synced automatically, so we can easily filter to see which assets are in use by each department!

Department is synced

We can’t wait to see what you build with this new Bot action. Stay tuned for many more exciting and powerful features coming soon. Until then, happy tracking!

Two-Factor Authentication

New Feature

We are thrilled to announce that Assetbots now supports two-factor authentication!

Modern security best-practices recommend enabling two-factor authentication (2FA or MFA) when available, and now you can add Assetbots to your list of more-secure providers!

To enable 2FA for your Assetbots account, click on your profile image or initials in the top-right corner of the screen and then click on your name to bring up your profile. You can also navigate to your profile directly by visiting https://app.assetbots.com/me.

Scroll down to the Two-Factor Authentication section and click Enable 2FA. To proceed, you must have an authenticator app installed on your mobile device – we recommend Google Authenticator, 1Password or Authy. Scan the QR code using your authenticator app or enter the generated code manually. Finally, enter the 6-digit verification code generated by your authenticator app and click Verify Code.

Enable two-factor authentication

Enable two-factor authentication

If this is your first time enabling two-factor authentication for your Assetbots account, you will be shown 10 backup codes you can use in case you lose access to your device. Store these codes somewhere safe. Each code may only be used once, and they will never be shown to you again.

Save backup codes

Save backup codes

Once enabled, you will be prompted to enter the verification code generated by your authenticator app when you sign in. You can optionally choose to have Assetbots remember your browser to make signing in more convenient. If you lose your device, you can click the Use a Backup Code button to use one of your backup codes instead.

Two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication

We hope you take advantage of the increased security offered by enabling two-factor authentication for your Assetbots account. Please contact us if you have any questions or need any help getting set up.

Until next time, happy tracking!

Set Bot Automation Time Zone

UI Improvement

We’ve added a Time Zone field to bot automations!

Now you can specify which time zone your bots should use when displaying dates and times in generated messages. This is especially useful when sending emails or text messages to your borrowers reminding them of upcoming due dates or confirming their reservations.

Time zone field

Time zone field

All date and time helpers are now time zone aware. If you need a refresher on template helpers and our bot actions system, take a look at the Actions documentation.

Happy tracking!

SendGrid and Twilio Integrations

New Feature

We’re happy to announce two new integrations that unlock even more power for your Bot automations!

SendGrid

Use your own SendGrid account

Use your own SendGrid account

Your bots can send emails using an email address you control when you enable the SendGrid integration. You can set a default From address and name, and even disable the default Assetbots footer and disclaimers.

Twilio

Use your own Twilio account

Use your own Twilio account

When you enable the Twilio integration, your bots will gain the ability to send text messages. Create best-in-class reminder sequences using a mix of texts and emails to make sure your equipment is returned when it is supposed to be.

Happy tracking!