Restrict Asset Access to Selected Categories

Mar 10, 2026

HappyFox now allows users to control asset visibility and access by Category.

This enhancement helps large organizations ensure that agents see and manage only the assets relevant to the categories they belong to such as IT, Facilities, or HR-while keeping existing behavior unchanged unless restrictions are explicitly configured.

Why Use Category-Based Asset Access?

In many organizations, assets are owned and managed by different teams.

Without restrictions:

Agents may see assets unrelated to their role
There’s a higher risk of accidental edits
Asset searches and linking become noisy
Ownership of assets is unclear

With category-based access, you can now segment assets by category, improving security, clarity, and efficiency.

How It Works

Enable Access Control Per Asset Type

Category-based access control is enabled individually for each Asset Type.

Go to Manage Asset Types
Open an Asset Type
Enable the toggle: “Access Control”
Select one or more Categories that should have access

Note: Only agents with Manage Asset Types permission can enable this toggle and assign categories.

Once enabled:

Assets inherit the selected category access from their Asset Type
Only agents in the selected categories can view, create, or edit these assets (as per their existing permissions)

If the toggle is not enabled for an Asset Type:

Assets remain visible to all agents, just like before

Permissions & Access Behavior

What Stays the Same

Asset Type creation and management remain universal
Agents with Manage Asset Types can view and manage all asset types

What Changes after enabling Access Control

Asset-level actions are now category-based:

Action	Who Can Do It
Manage Asset Fields	Agents in the associated category
View, create or edit assets	Agents in the associated category
Import / Export assets	Agents in the associated category
Migrate assets	Agents in the associated category

Even if an agent has Manage Assets permission, they can only work with assets from categories they have access to.

Agent Experience

Asset List & Asset Details

Agents see only assets relevant to their categories
Assets from other categories are hidden
Creating or editing assets is limited to permitted asset types

Import, Export, and Migration

Asset types available for import/export are automatically filtered
Agents can import or export assets only for allowed categories

Working with Assets on Tickets

Linking Assets to Tickets

Asset search is filtered by the agent’s category access
Agents cannot link assets outside their categories

When a Ticket’s Category Changes

Sometimes, a ticket may be reassigned to a different category after assets are already linked.

In such cases:

The linked asset remains attached to the ticket
If the agent does not have access to the asset’s category:
- Full asset details are hidden
- A limited, read-only view (asset name and ID) is shown
If the agent has access:
- Full asset details and actions are available

This ensures ticket history remains intact while preventing unintended access.

Contact Details Page

Assets shown on a contact’s profile follow the same category rules
Asset lookup and linking are restricted to permitted categories

Contact Experience

This feature has no effect on contacts, i.e., contact portal behavior of viewable assets remains unchanged.

Note:

Category-based access control is optional.

If an asset type is not associated with any category, its assets remain visible to all agents (current behavior)
Restrictions apply only after you configure access control for an asset type

Best Practices

Start by mapping asset types to high-level teams (IT, Facilities, HR)
Leave shared asset types (e.g., “Company Devices”) unrestricted initially
Review category assignments before enabling restrictions at scale