Forum Discussion

BrianPierron's avatar
BrianPierron
Qrew Trainee
6 years ago

Is there a way to track who modified a specific field being changed?

Is there a way to track who modified a specific field being changed? I have a a check box called "Checked In". I would like to be able to see which user selected this option and when it was done so it...
Audit
EvanMartinez's avatar
EvanMartinez
Quickbase Staff
Hi Brian,

This is often a really great use of Actions or Quick Base Automations to help you track when a specific field is changing. Actions/ Automations can be set up to trigger off of specific field changes and can capture certain pieces of information. In this instance you could create an Audit table to track when a checkbox field was checked and by who. When I do this I usually make a table called Audit and include the following fields:

Record ID of Parent Record
Date Modified 
User 

this way you have a place to put the Record ID of the record that triggered the change, when it was changed, and who is it was trained by. Then on the table that has the checkbox you create an Automation so that whenever a record on this table is edited and specifically the Checked in field is changed create a record in the new Audit table and copy over the record id, date modified, and modified by fields. This way each time that checkbox field is changed a new record is created to capture everything you know. Now you have an Audit table you can set permissions on so that only specific people can see or everyone can see the record of changes. I hope this information is helpful.
AdamHollman's avatar
AdamHollman
Qrew Trainee
4 years ago
Hi Evan,
Hope you're well.
I found your response very useful above and also want to track all changes to all fields in my productions database. I have over 100 fields, isn't there a way I can run an automation which creates a new record in an 'update' database but copies over which field was changed and the actual change in the field without linking the specific field in productions to the field in updates. I basically don't want to have to copy the whole records fields, i just want to copy which specific field has changed into the update database. Thanks

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Adam Hollman
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  • EvanMartinez's avatar
    EvanMartinez
    Quickbase Staff
    4 years ago
    Hi Adam,

    It can get kind of complicated to track that much change and still be able to target just the field that changes to copy over. It isn't something I have built out before but some of those community members here might have their own suggestions. I will say since this first response our Audit Log functions have also grown to allow for better tracking of field changes as an option as well.

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    Evan Martinez
    Community Marketing Manager
    Quickbase
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    • MarkShnier__You's avatar
      MarkShnier__You
      Icon for Qrew Legend rankQrew Legend
      4 years ago
      As follow in to what Evan said, when I set up audit tables I include in the audit table the field that was being changed and if I am auditing changes on multiple tables then I include a field for the name of the table.  

      I then fire and automation to record both the old value and the new value into that table.  Inevitably there are many records written where the old value and the new value is the same because I use one automation which many steps to write out separate records for the old value and the new value whenever anyone of a number of fields change.  

      So I know you said you had 100 fields but for example you could decide to track the 10 most important fields.  

      Then when the record is changed and just one out of those 10 fields change you end up writing out 10 records of which nine have the old value and the new value identical.  

      So then you can set up an automation to automatically delete audit trail records where in fact there was no change.  

      This approach works pretty well as long as you do not need to track every single field.  


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      Mark Shnier (YQC)
      Quick Base Solution Provider
      Your Quick Base Coach
      http://QuickBaseCoach.com
      mark.shnier@gmail.com
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      • AdamHollman's avatar
        AdamHollman
        Qrew Trainee
        4 years ago
        Evan/Mark thankyou for your responses. I've been told automatons will be phased out soon and to use pipelines for this.

        Unfortunately I'm not realm admin but I'm trying to duplicate the functionality in audits onto a table.

        Mark - I'm hoping my audit table would have these fields (and can restrict the number of fields as the trigger):

        Field Changed - this will actually show me the name of the field that's changed in the main table. So if my automaton has 10 fields to look for triggers, this will show the specific field changed. I can't see a way of adding the actual field name from the main table into this field in the audit table - any hints?
        Old Value
        New Value
        Changed by
        Changed date

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        Adam Hollman
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