Allow different filters on inherited attributes for child object types

As an Assets manager, I want to be able to choose whether the AQL filter for child object type with an inherited attribute of type 'Object' is inherited from the parent or customised for the child object type, so that I can take advantage of attribute inheritance but tailor the filtering for different types of child object.

For example, in an object schema for IT assets I might have a set of reference object types, say (with bullets showing parent-child hierarchy):

• Software
  • Applications
  • Databases
  • Plugins

each describing a software product - perhaps with attributes such as 'Description', 'Vendor', 'Hosting model' etc.

I could then have object types for instances of software:

• Software Instance
  • Application Instance
  • Database Instance
  • Plugin Instance

enabling me to represent the individual instances of those software products in my estate, and to link licenses etc. to the relevant instances.

Now let's say I want to have an attribute on each of my 'Instance' object types which is an 'Object' type attribute called 'Software' (including children), allowing me to choose which software it's an instance of.

In this situation, currently I now have two or three options, and none of them is great.

1. I can enable inheritance on the Software Instance object type, and define the attribute 'Software' on that object type so it's inherited by the child 'Instance' types. However when creating, say, a 'Database Instance' object, I'll get a list of all software to choose from, including Applications and Plugins as well as Databases. Poor user experience and increased risk of errors.

2. I can define the Software attribute separately on each child 'Instance' object type, and configure an AQL filter on each e.g. objectType = Database for the 'Database Instance' object type, and objectType = Application for the 'Application Instance' object type. However although these attributes have the same name (Software) they're actually distinct attributes and will be rendered as separate columns in some reports (e.g. via the Assets Macro for Confluence) - not helpful.

3. I can define the Software attribute separately as in (2) and instead of pointing to the parent Software object type, define attribute differently to point respectively to 'Applications', 'Databases' and 'Plugins' on each of the child 'Instance' object types. This has the same problem as (2) - distinct attributes that get reported on separately in some views.

What I want to be able to do is basically (1) but then on each child object type, have the option to configure different AQL filters like in (2). So the attribute would be the same attribute on each object type (reports would show all the values in the same column across all object types) but the displayed list of options could be tailored by object type, improving the user experience by only displaying relevant options.

Currently I'm prevented from doing this because when configuring the filter on a child object, the changes are applied to that attribute everywhere in the inheritance tree (e.g. setting the filter 'objectType = Database' on the Database Instance object type also applies it to the Application Instance and Plugin Instance types).