Inventory-number schemes

Open Settings > General > Inventory numbers to control automatic identities assigned during vehicle and accessory-article creation. A scheme contains a unique category, prefix, next number, padding width, active state, and preview.

Stable v0.1.20.3 normally provides these active schemes:

Category	Default prefix	Default example	Used for
Vehicle	RK-FAH	RK-FAH-000001	Vehicle fallback
Locomotive	RK-LOK	RK-LOK-000001	Categories containing lok
Wagon	RK-WAG	RK-WAG-000001	Categories containing wagen or waggon
Article	RK-ART	RK-ART-000001	Accessory article records

The displayed labels are localized, but the stored categories above use their German values Fahrzeug, Lokomotive, Wagen, and Artikel.

Assignment rules

RailKeeper reserves the number inside the same database transaction that creates the record. A successful reservation increments Next number. If the create transaction fails, its number is not consumed.

For a vehicle, RailKeeper first looks for an active scheme whose category exactly matches the selected vehicle category. It then tries the classified Locomotive or Wagon fallback and finally the Vehicle scheme. An accessory article requires the active Article scheme and has no fallback.

The generated form is always PREFIX-NUMBER. RailKeeper uppercases the saved prefix, trims it, and replaces spaces with hyphens. Padding must be from 1 through 12, and the next number must be at least

1. Padding is a minimum width, so a larger number is never truncated.

Before assignment, RailKeeper checks the relevant record table. If a candidate is already used, it tries the next value and advances past the collision. It stops after 500 attempts. Vehicle and article numbers are checked in their respective tables, not as one shared global namespace.

Create or edit a scheme

1. Review the existing categories before adding one. Each category can have only one scheme.
2. Enter the category, prefix, next number, padding, and active state in the new row.
3. Check the preview and select Create.
4. For an existing row, edit its values in place and select Save.

There is no delete endpoint in v0.1.20.3. Deactivate an unused scheme instead. Editing or deactivating a scheme never renumbers existing records.

Only Admin and Editor may create or save schemes. Viewer and Planner can read the table. The stable UI can still show editable-looking fields to those read-only roles, but the server rejects the write.

Change the next number safely

Moving Next number forward intentionally leaves a gap. Moving it backward does not reuse an existing number silently because collision checking skips occupied candidates, but it can require many attempts and makes audits harder. Prefer a forward-only sequence.

Before changing prefixes or categories:

1. Export an application backup.
2. Record the current preview and next number.
3. Confirm that the prefix does not overlap another scheme in the same record domain.
4. Save the scheme and create one test record.
5. Verify the assigned number and the updated next value.

When article creation reports that no number can be allocated, reactivate or repair the Article scheme. For vehicles, verify the exact category scheme and its Locomotive, Wagon, and Vehicle fallbacks.

Backup and restore behavior

Inventory-number schemes belong to the application database and are included in application backup and restore. They are excluded from the master-data JSON transfer. For legacy article rows without an inventory number, restore ensures that an Article scheme exists. It assigns missing numbers only when that scheme is active; otherwise restore is rejected. Generated values do not duplicate other restored article numbers. The scheme can remain numerically behind existing article numbers; later article creation safely skips those collisions.

Related pages

• Master-data administration
• Master-data transfer
• Vehicle inventory
• Article records and technical data

Documented RailKeeper version

This page documents stable RailKeeper v0.1.20.3 and was last reviewed on 2026-08-16.