Support Custom Field Name Changes

Environment

• Python version: 3.7
• Nautobot version: v1.0.0b2

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a custom field in nautobot, e.g. color on the dcim.device model
2. Update data for a device, e.g. set to red
3. Updated name of custom field to colour
4. View the data in in the UI (notice it is missing)
5. Return custom field to color
6. See data return

Expected Behavior

Either custom fields should not be editable or when edited, the data should migrate as well.

Observed Behavior

The data seems to “disappear” on the UI. When the custom field name is returned, the data “reappears”.

Screenshots

[glennmatthews]

What about adding label. This way the name(label) presented to the End Users could change, but not change the internal field. Though, this could change its usability in scripts and jobs.

Custom fields actually do already have a label field, which can be freely changed. 😃

[jathanism]

Yeah I would definitely lean towards a custom field not being able to be renamed once it is created. That would go a long way to avoiding an issue like this entirely that results in apparent data loss. Other concrete model fields cannot be renamed, so I think this asserts that consistency and prevents us from having to come up with an over-engineered solution.