Logging changes to panel data

Training course

When you have many users changing data, it is easy for data to be incorrectly updated. Logging changes to panel data allows you to review who changed the data and what the data was before and after the change.

To log changes to panel data, the Change History Display content item must be added to the content record where the panel is located.

Note: You cannot log changes to Standalone panels.

Important! Change logging only applies to changes, not initial inserts. Panel properties begin logging changes once the initial insert to the panel property is changed and saved.

Configuring account pages to log panel changes

If the panel is already added to the account page, you can do the following to log changes to panel data:

  1. Make sure the panel properties are enabled for logging:
    1. Go to RiSE > Panel Designer > Panel definitions.
    2. Select the panel.
    3. If the property is in the panel layout area, delete it from the layout.

      4. Removing a property from the layout area to edit it

    4. Right-click the property and select View.

      5. Right-clicking to View a property

    5. Enable Log all changes.

      6. Enabling Log all changes

    6. Click OK.
    7. Add the property back to the panel, then click Save.
  2. Add the Change History Display content item to the account page.

    3. Note: If you are not already working with a copy of the standard account page, you must save a copy before you can save and publish a change. You must also update your site shortcuts to point to your new page. See Understanding and modifying account pages for details.

  3. Make a change to the fields you wish to log, and then refresh the page to see if your changes are displayed in the Change History panel.
  4. If your changes are not displayed, then those particular fields are not configured for changes to be logged. Do the following as necessary:
    1. Open the panel in Panel Designer. Click the gear icon.
    2. If the property is already in the layout area, click the X to remove the property.
    3. Right-click a property for which you want to log changes, and select View.
    4. In the Edit Property window, select the Log all changes checkbox.
    5. Click OK.
    6. Add the property back to the layout area of the panel.
    7. Click Save & Close.
Reporting on the change-log history

The Change History Display content item enables you to review the change history for a single contact. Using the ChangeProperty, ChangeLog, and NetContactData business objects, you can query on the change history for more than one contact at a time.

Do the following to report on the change-log history for multiple contacts in a specific date range:

  1. Go to RiSE > Intelligent Query Architect > New > Query.
  2. (Summary tab) Enter a Name.
  3. (Sources tab) Add the NetContactData, ChangeProperty, and ChangeLog business objects with the following relations:
    • ChangeLog.Change Log Key = ChangeProperty.Change Log Key
    • NetContactData.Contact Key = ChangeLog.Object Key
  4. (Filters tab) To narrow the results to a specific date range, add the following filter:
    • Property: [ChangeLog] Created On
    • Comparison: Between
    • Add To Search?: Optional

    5. Viewing the Filters tab

  5. (Display tab) Add the following display properties:
    • [NetContactData] Full Name
    • [ChangeProperty] Property Name
    • [ChangeProperty] Original Value
    • [ChangeProperty] Current Value
  6. Click Run.
  7. Enter the desired date range. To review changes made for today’s date, enter today’s date in both date fields.

    8. Entering a date range into a query

  8. Click Find. The change history for all contacts within the specified date range display.

    9. Running the query results

  9. (optional) To group the changes for each contact, navigate back to the Display tab, then enable Group By for the name property.

    10. Grouping changes for each contact

Auto-populating the date and time a panel source is updated

You can configure your panel source to auto-populate the date and time an entry is updated. Do the following to add sources that will automatically populate when an entry is updated:

  1. From the Staff site, open the desired panel for edit. For this example, we are editing the Personal details panel on the out-of-the-box user account page.

    2. Auto-populating the date and time

  2. In Panel Designer, select Create source.

    3. Selecting Create source

  3. Enter a Source name, then click OK.

    4. Entering a Source name

  4. Under the new source, select Add property, and add the property you want to track.

    5. Adding new properties to the source

  5. Continue to add the following properties:

    6. Continuing to add properties to the source

    Table 1: Viewing property names, property types, and lengths
    Property name Property type Length
    CreatedByUserKey Text 80
    CreatedOn Date and Time  
    UpdatedByUserKey Text 80
    UpdatedOn Date and Time  
  6. Add all of these properties to the panel by double-clicking the source.
  7. Mark the CreatedByUserKey, CreatedOn, UpdatedByUserKey, and UpdatedOn properties as Read-only.

    8. Adding properties to the panel

  8. Click Save & Close.
  9. Edit the panel data and change the value in a field.
  10. Click Save.
  11. After saving, the four read-only fields are automatically populated.

    12. Viewing the results of the panel