diff --git a/lib/WebGUI/Asset.pm b/lib/WebGUI/Asset.pm
index 316d1884d..1be61226f 100644
--- a/lib/WebGUI/Asset.pm
+++ b/lib/WebGUI/Asset.pm
@@ -236,6 +236,12 @@ property  assetSize => (
           );
 has       session => (
             is              => 'ro',
+            required        => 1,
+          );
+has       assetId => (
+            is              => 'ro',
+            lazy            => 1,
+            default         => sub { shift->session->id->generate() },
           );
 
 around BUILDARGS => sub {
@@ -1054,7 +1060,7 @@ Returns the assetId of an Asset.
 
 sub getId {
 	my $self = shift;
-	return $self->get("assetId");
+	return $self->assetId;
 }
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/t/Asset.t b/t/Asset.t
index 007b04dfe..0ca6e0a35 100644
--- a/t/Asset.t
+++ b/t/Asset.t
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ use Test::More;
 use Test::Deep;
 use Test::Exception;
 
-plan tests => 17;
+plan tests => 20;
 
 my $session = WebGUI::Test->session;
 
@@ -47,6 +47,10 @@ my $session = WebGUI::Test->session;
     is $asset->get('title'), $asset->title, '... get(title) works';
 
     is $asset->menuTitle, 'Untitled', 'menuTitle: default is untitled';
+
+    can_ok $asset, qw/assetId getId/;
+    ok $session->id->valid( $asset->assetId), 'assetId generated by default is valid';
+    is $asset->assetId, $asset->getId, '... getId is an alias for assetId';
 }
 
 {
@@ -69,7 +73,7 @@ my $session = WebGUI::Test->session;
     $asset->menuTitle('<h1></h1>');
     is $asset->menuTitle, 'asset title', '... if HTML filters out all, returns default';
 
-    my $asset = WebGUI::Asset->new({
+    $asset = WebGUI::Asset->new({
         session   => $session,
         title     => 'asset title',
         menuTitle => 'menuTitle asset',