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Auditing
Rationale
Auditing (also known as the auditing trail) guarantees that all the operations on the database:
- Are performed in a non-destructive manner.
- This means that it is possible for a DBA to revert changes that have been made.
- Every change has indication of when that change was made and who did that change (if the user is known by the system).
- This means that you can see who did what and when.
Note that Orbeon Forms as of Orbeon Forms 2018.2 doesn't provide a user interface for this feature.
Usage
For auditing to work meaningfully, Form Runner needs to know who is presently using the application.
Implementation for relational databases
When you use a relational persistence layer:
- Every table has the following 4 columns:
createdtells you when given the data (e.g. attachment to a form for theorbeon_form_data_attach).last_modifiedtells you when the data was last changed.usernametells you who did that change.deletedtells you if the data is marked as deleted, and hence invisible to users.
- Once a row is added to a column, it is never updated or deleted. Only new rows are added.
- When data is first added to a table,
createdandlast_modifiedhave the same value. Then, when this data is modified, another row is added:createdis copied over andlast_modifiedis set to the current time stamp. - When data is deleted by users, a new row is added. This row is a copy of the latest row for the data that is being deleted, except for
last_modifiedwhich is set to the current time stamp anddeletedwhich is set toY.
Disabling auditing
As of Orbeon Forms 2018.2, it is not possible to disable this feature. However, you can regularly purge old data as needed.