Revision History API

Availability

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2023.1]

Service endpoint

HTTP GET to the following path:

/fr/service/persistence/history/$app/$form/$document

Purpose

The Revision History API is used to retrieve the revision history of a form data document.

API

Request

Path elements

The endpoint path requires values for the following path elements:

Path element

Description

Mandatory

app

App name

Yes

form

Form name

Yes

document

Document id

Yes

These specify the specific form data document for which to retrieve the revision history.

Note that this API does not retrieve draft form data, only final form data.

Parameters

The following URL parameters are supported:

Parameter

Description

Required

Multiple

Format

Default

page-number

The page number, starting at 1

Positive integer

page-size

The number of items per page, defaulting to 10, maximum 100

Positive integer

include-diffs

Include diffs between consecutive revisions

Boolean

False

lang

Language for labels in diffs

String

See below

truncation-size

Maximum size for diff values before truncation

Positive integer

No truncation

A client can call the API using paging, to obtain smaller chunks of the revision history. A first request can, for example, use page-number=1 and page-size=10. If the response indicates that there are more items, the client can then call the API again with page-number=2 and page-size=10, and so on.

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2025.1] When include-diffs is set to true, the response will include a <diffs> element within each <document> element (except for the original/oldest revision), showing the differences between that revision and the previous one. The lang parameter specifies which language to use for control labels in the diffs. If not specified, the API will use the language specified by the oxf.fr.default-language property or the fist language available in the form definition. The truncation-size parameter limits the length of diff values to prevent overly large responses.

Examples

Retrieve the first page of revision history for the orbeon/bookshelf form data document with id adcfea40124ef8e68fa81764df389d5a80b61762:

/fr/service/persistence/history/orbeon/bookshelf/adcfea40124ef8e68fa81764df389d5a80b61762?
    page-number=1&
    page-size=10

Retrieve the first page with diffs between consecutive revisions:

/fr/service/persistence/history/orbeon/public-records/e7fb0c80221b191bf18e95e08d55ef9242ddcf73?
    page-number=1&
    page-size=10&
    include-diffs=true&
    lang=en

Response

The response is an XML document. Example:

<documents
    application-name="orbeon"
    form-name="bookshelf"
    document-id="adcfea40124ef8e68fa81764df389d5a80b61762"
    total="3"
    min-last-modified-time="2024-01-22T21:43:53.397Z"
    max-last-modified-time="2024-02-22T22:36:34.018Z"
    page-size="10"
    page-number="1"
    form-version="1"
    created-time="2024-01-18T01:37:29.206Z"
    created-username="">
    <document 
        modified-time="2024-02-22T22:36:34.018Z" 
        modified-username=""
        owner-username="[email protected]"
        owner-group=""
        deleted="false"/>
    <document 
        modified-time="2024-02-22T22:36:25.898Z" 
        modified-username="[email protected]"
        owner-username="[email protected]"
        owner-group=""
        deleted="false"/>
    <document 
        modified-time="2024-01-22T21:43:53.397Z"
        modified-username="[email protected]"
        owner-username="[email protected]"
        owner-group=""
        deleted="false"/>
</documents>

Example response with include-diffs=true:

<documents
    application-name="orbeon"
    form-name="public-records"
    document-id="e7fb0c80221b191bf18e95e08d55ef9242ddcf73"
    total="3"
    min-last-modified-time="2025-08-25T07:48:14.732Z"
    max-last-modified-time="2025-10-13T08:45:39.678Z"
    page-size="10"
    page-number="1"
    form-version="1"
    created-time="2025-08-25T07:48:14.732Z"
    created-username="">
    <document
        modified-time="2025-10-13T08:45:39.678Z"
        modified-username="admin"
        owner-username="[email protected]"
        owner-group=""
        deleted="false">
        <diffs older-modified-time="2025-10-13T08:45:18.641Z">
            <diff type="value-changed" name="company">
                <label>Company</label>
                <from/>
                <to>Acme Corporation</to>
            </diff>
        </diffs>
    </document>
    <document
        modified-time="2025-10-13T08:45:18.641Z"
        modified-username="[email protected]"
        owner-username="[email protected]"
        owner-group=""
        deleted="false">
        <diffs older-modified-time="2025-08-25T07:48:14.732Z">
            <diff type="value-changed" name="preferred-method-of-contact">
                <label>Preferred method of contact in the event of questions</label>
                <from>Email</from>
                <to>Fax</to>
            </diff>
            <diff type="iteration-added" name="grid-3" count="1"/>
            <diff type="value-changed" name="control-3">
                <label/>
                <from/>
                <to>Bridge maintenance reports</to>
            </diff>
        </diffs>
    </document>
    <document
        modified-time="2025-08-25T07:48:14.732Z"
        modified-username="[email protected]"
        owner-username="[email protected]"
        owner-group=""
        deleted="false"/>
</documents>

The following elements and attributes are returned:

application-name: the application name, as requested in the URL
form-name: the form name, as requested in the URL
document-id: the document id, as requested in the URL
total: the total number of entries (current and historical) found in the database
min-last-modified-time:
- [SINCE Orbeon Forms 2023.1.1]
- the earliest last modified time found in the database
max-last-modified-time:
- [SINCE Orbeon Forms 2023.1.1]
- the latest last modified time found in the database
page-size: the number of items per page, as requested in the URL
page-number: the page number, starting at 1, as requested in the URL
form-version: the form version associated with the form data
created-time: the time the form data was initially created
created-username: the username of the user who created the form data; empty if the data was modified by an anonymous user
document: element describing one of the form data documents
- modified-time: the time the form data was last modified
- modified-username: the username of the user who last modified the form data; empty if the data was modified by an anonymous user
- owner-username: the username of the user who owns the form data
- owner-group: the group of the user who owns the form data; empty if there is no user group information
- deleted: whether the form data was marked as deleted
- [SINCE Orbeon Forms 2025.1] diffs: (only present when include-diffs=true) element containing the differences between this revision and the previous one
  - older-modified-time: the modification time of the older revision
  - diff: element describing a specific difference (may appear multiple times)
    type (attribute): the type of difference, one of:
    value-changed: a control value was changed
    iteration-added: one or more iterations were added to a repeated grid or section
    iteration-removed: one or more iterations were removed from a repeated grid or section
    element-added: an element was added (in a non-repeated container)
    element-removed: an element was removed (from a non-repeated container)
    other: other (unspecified) types of changes
    name (attribute): the name of the control, grid, or section
    count (attribute): the number of iterations added or removed (for iteration-added and iteration-removed types)
    label (sub-element): the label for the control, grid, or section in the specified language (if available)
    mediatype: attribute indicating if the label contains HTML (text/html)
    from (sub-element): the old value (for value-changed type)
    to (sub-element): the new value (for value-changed type)

Revision Diff API

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2025.1]

Service endpoint

HTTP GET to the following path:

/fr/service/persistence/history/$app/$form/$document/diff

Purpose

The Revision Diff API is used to retrieve the differences between two specific revisions of a form data document.

API

Request

Path elements

The endpoint path requires values for the following path elements:

Path element

Description

Mandatory

app

App name

Yes

form

Form name

Yes

document

Document id

Yes

Parameters

The following URL parameters are supported:

Parameter

Description

Required

Multiple

Format

Default

form-version

The form version

Yes

Positive integer

older-modified-time

The modification time of the older revision

Yes

ISO 8601 instant

newer-modified-time

The modification time of the newer revision

Yes

ISO 8601 instant

lang

Language for labels in diffs

String

See above

truncation-size

Maximum size for diff values before truncation

Positive integer

See above

Examples

Retrieve the differences between two specific revisions:

/fr/service/persistence/history/orbeon/bookshelf/adcfea40124ef8e68fa81764df389d5a80b61762/diff?
    form-version=1&
    older-modified-time=2024-01-22T21:43:53.397Z&
    newer-modified-time=2024-02-22T22:36:25.898Z&
    lang=en

Response

The response is an XML document containing a <diffs> element with the same structure as described in the Revision History API response when include-diffs=true. Example:

<diffs
    older-modified-time="2024-01-22T21:43:53.397Z"
    newer-modified-time="2024-02-22T22:36:25.898Z">
    <diff type="value-changed" name="title">
        <label>Title</label>
        <from>The Great Gastby</from>
        <to>The Great Gatsby</to>
    </diff>
    <diff type="iteration-added" name="note" count="1"/>
</diffs>

The response elements are:

diffs: root element containing all differences
- older-modified-time: the modification time of the older revision
- newer-modified-time: the modification time of the newer revision
- diff: element describing a specific difference (structure as documented in the Revision History API response)

Limitations

Section templates are not supported yet.
Form Builder form definitions are not supported yet.

Availability

Service endpoint

Purpose

API

Request

Path elements

Parameters

Examples

Response

Revision Diff API

Service endpoint

Purpose

API

Request

Response

Limitations

See also