Rolling out QR codes

This guide takes a maintenance lead from an empty workspace to labeled machines that people scan every day. Plan for one site first, then repeat for the next.

1. Decide the handle and identifiers

Every printed code holds a link like /@acme/PRESS-042: your workspace handle and the asset's identifier. Settle both before you print.

• Handle. Choose it after you activate your account, or change it in Workspace settings, General. Former handles keep redirecting, but new labels should carry the final one.
• Identifiers. Use what is already on the machine, such as a serial number or an inventory number, if it is unique. Identifiers are stored in uppercase and allow letters, digits, ., _, and -, 4 to 64 characters.
• Patterns. If your numbers follow a rule, set an identifier pattern on the asset type. A new asset whose identifier matches the pattern gets that type suggested. The pattern of the root type, All assets, decides which identifiers the workspace allows. See Asset types.

Changing an identifier later breaks the codes already on the machine, so get this right first.

2. Build the spaces

Model the site as a tree of spaces, for example site, hall, line. Each space has a kind: Organization, Site, Area, Line, or Group. A setup pack gives you an example tree to start from.

If you want a strict structure, set up space kind rules before you add spaces. If teams should see only their own area, assign teams to spaces.

3. Add the assets

Open Assets, select Create, then Asset, and enter the name, identifier, type, and space. Without an identifier, Machine QR makes one from the name. In a space, the asset also gets a position, so a replacement machine can later take its place. See Spaces and assets.

If your documents already sit in one folder per machine, map the folder levels with Create what's missing turned on. That creates the spaces and assets for you.

4. Print and attach the labels

For each asset, open it, select the QR code icon, and download the SVG. Machine QR downloads one code at a time. Print the codes on labels that last in the machine's environment, and place them where a person stands to work. See Print QR codes.

You can also print labels first and register the machines as you go. A scan of a valid identifier that has no asset yet shows Not registered and offers Register. Members can always register; visitors only when Visitor registration is on in Workspace settings, Assets.

5. Decide what visitors see

Customers and contractors without an account see the public page only while public pages are on. It shows the asset's name, identifier, type, and type image, never its records. New workspaces start with public pages off; the Public links setup pack turns them on. See QR codes and public pages.

6. Test, then train

1. Scan three labels with different phones, logged in and logged out.
2. Check that each opens the right asset, and that the Documents tab shows its manuals.
3. Show your team At the machine: scan, look up, record.

After a week, open a few assets and look at their logbooks. Posts with photos and comments show that people use the codes.