Add ability to add a comment to change log entries

[fabi125]

NetBox version

v4.3.2

Feature type

Data model extension

Proposed functionality

Support an additional "netbox-change-comment: some comment goes here" header for changes made via the api that gets stored in the change log together with the changes.

Use case

We have a lot of automated systems that make changes to our NetBox instance. It would be great if we could send additional information about what caused a certain change to NetBox that would be included in the change log entry.

Database changes

Additional text field on the changelog model.

External dependencies

None.

[arthanson]

so basically add a comment field to ObjectChange.

[fabi125]

so basically add a comment field to ObjectChange.

yep, thats the model change that is required. and then when making changes in netbox there would need to be a way to supply that comment. maybe something out-of-band like a header.

[jeremystretch]

so basically add a comment field to ObjectChange.

This would also need a mechanism for passing the comment when creating, editing, or deleting an object, both via the REST API as well as the web UI, possibly to include bulk operations. I'd like to see this proposal fleshed out quite a bit more.

[github-actions]

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[fabi125]

For the API I would suggest using a header to keep things out-of-band and backwards compatible.

For UI edits this could be achieved with a field on the confirmation pop-up. Not sure if that would be seen as adding too much friction. Or this could start out as an API-only feature if that would be acceptable.