Add name constraint on labels, items and locations to avoid duplication

[duchenpaul]

What is the problem you are trying to solve with this feature?

Sometimes, I create items that are already there, without any warnings, I simply create something that I have already created before, I use it to manage my bolts and nuts, so the size difference in name is easily gotten mix, if there were a error message when I am trying to create something that have been there, it would be useful.

What is the solution you are proposing?

Add a unique constraint in the database.
Pass the error to the frontend once constraint violated.

What alternatives have you considered?

If there is a warning message, it will help as well.

Additional context

No response

Contributions

• I have searched through existing ideas in the discussions to check if this is a duplicate

[realchrisolin]

I agree that the scenario described is a problem, but I don't think creating a database constraint to prevent duplicate item_names is a realistic solution (or feasible).

I would posit that after clicking Create / Create and Add Another, there should be a warning dialog / prompt informing the user that an item with the specified item name already exists and asks for confirmation before creating the item.

[realchrisolin]

realchrisolin@83619a3 is what I was thinking, but I'll leave it to the upstream devs to weigh in on if this implementation is something they want to merge. I have virtually zero experience developing in Go and even less with Vue.

tl;dr: new api/v1/items/check-duplicate endpoint that calls a new CheckDuplicateName() function to check if there's already an item in the user's group with the same name

[tonyaellie]

Adding a duplicate warning definately makes sense to me, you would probably want to prefetch the duplicate check if you stop typing in the name.

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX UQ_NAME ON ITEMS (NAME);

I would be hesitant modifying the database in case it conflicts with future changes but I also dont see this being a problem.

[tankerkiller125]

@tonyaellie @realchrisolin The DB change would be overwritten (at least on SQLite) anytime we modify the table (because SQLite requires us to completely rebuild the table because of it's lack of solid ALTER capabilities).

[duchenpaul]

anything:

Fantastic! How about add a toggle button in the settings (default to allow dups for compatibility ) to let users to decide based on their needs? I understand that in some cases duplication could be reasonable, e.g. same thing distributed in different locations.

[realchrisolin]

The DB change would be overwritten (at least on SQLite) anytime we modify the table

@tankerkiller125 Good to know, sounds like another reason why a unique constraint shouldn't be introduced upstream as (I believe) any existing duplicate named items would throw an error during the rebuild that the constraint was violated. That said, perhaps the idea I initially suggested would be better off discussing as there's already commits that can be pulled in: main...realchrisolin:homebox:duplicate_item_check

Fantastic! How about add a toggle button in the settings (default to allow dups for compatibility ) to let users to decide based on their needs?

@duchenpaul Except there isn't a "settings" page. There's a "tools" page and as far as I can tell, no place to store a setting value like this. The duplicate warning prompt is a better solution.

[Saturo78]

While I understand the motivation behind this request, I believe enforcing a unique constraint on item names would create significant limitations for more advanced use cases.

In my setup, I often store identical items in different locations — for example, the same type of screw in multiple boxes. I also manage similar items under the same name but differentiate them visually using photos (e.g. different materials or manufacturers).

For me, the item name alone is not a reliable unique identifier, and enforcing uniqueness based only on that would prevent me from properly organizing my inventory.

A better approach might be to add an optional duplicate warning or suggestion when creating a new item — e.g. “An item with a similar name already exists, do you want to check it?” — rather than blocking the creation entirely.

In short: a hard uniqueness constraint would make Homebox less flexible for more complex or real-world storage workflows

[realchrisolin]

A better approach might be to add an optional duplicate warning or suggestion when creating a new item — e.g. “An item with a similar name already exists, do you want to check it?” — rather than blocking the creation entirely.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I already came up with changes that does effectively this -- however the prompt is not optional. The current design of Homebox doesn't support any kind of "global settings" type features that can be enabled or disabled like that.

[tonyaellie]

We could have a third option something like "don't warn me again" and save that to user preferences, it's not (yet) synced between devices but it's better than nothing.