Blank asset numbers, contested device claims, and honest toner forecasting

plugins/machines/frontend/views/MachineForm.vue

@@ -7,6 +7,11 @@
     <div class="card">
       <div v-if="loading" class="loading">Loading...</div>
 
+      <!-- The record failed to load. Show the reason INSTEAD of the form: an
+           empty edit form is indistinguishable from a record whose fields are
+           genuinely empty, and saving it would write the blanks back. -->
+      <div v-else-if="loadFailed" class="error-message">{{ error }}</div>
+
       <form v-else @submit.prevent="saveMachine">
         <!-- Identity Section -->
         <h3 class="form-section-title">Identity</h3>
@@ -425,6 +430,10 @@ const statuses = ref([])
 const vendors = ref([])
 const locations = ref([])
 const models = ref([])
+// Set when the record itself could not be loaded, as opposed to a reference
+// list failing. The form is withheld entirely, because an empty edit form is
+// indistinguishable from a record whose fields are genuinely empty.
+const loadFailed = ref(false)
 const businessunits = ref([])
 const pcs = ref([])
 const relationshipTypes = ref([])
@@ -506,9 +515,29 @@ onMounted(async () => {
       relationshipTypeId.value = controlsType.relationshiptypeid
     }
 
-    // Load machine if editing
+    // Load machine if editing.
+    //
+    // ITS OWN try/catch, deliberately. This used to sit inside the same block
+    // as the eight reference loads above, so ONE transient failure among them -
+    // a page of listAll() timing out on a busy collector cycle - rejected the
+    // whole thing and rendered a fully editable EDIT form with every field
+    // BLANK, including the required Asset Number, next to a Save button. Typing
+    // a number and saving then wrote the blank-loaded values over a real
+    // machine. The reference lists degrade to empty dropdowns; the record must
+    // not degrade at all.
     if (isEdit.value) {
-      const response = await machinesApi.get(route.params.id)
+      let response
+      try {
+        response = await machinesApi.get(route.params.id)
+      } catch (err) {
+        console.error('Error loading machine:', err)
+        error.value = 'Could not load this machine. Nothing has been changed - '
+          + 'reload the page rather than saving, or the blank form would '
+          + 'overwrite the record.'
+        loadFailed.value = true
+        loading.value = false
+        return
+      }
       const data = response.data.data
       currentAssetId.value = data.assetid || null
       currentMachine.value = data