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Administering Oracle CRM On Demand > Application Customization > Record Type Application Customization Page > Customizing the Audit Trail

Customizing the Audit Trail

For many record types, you can use the audit trail to track the creation, deletion, and restoration of records, and also to track updates to specified fields on existing records. An audit trail record shows the details of the user whose action triggered the audit trail record, the type of action that was performed, and a timestamp. When an audited field on an existing record is updated, the audit trail record for the change to the field shows the old and new values for the field.

NOTE: If none of the audited fields is updated when a record is updated, then no audit trail record is generated for the operation.

Company Settings for the Audit Trail

The length of time that the audit trail records are retained in Oracle CRM On Demand is specified in the Audit Expiry (Days) field in the company profile. In the standard application, the records are retained for 90 days, but administrators can specify a different length of time.

The maximum number of fields that you can audit for a record type is specified in the Record Type Auditable Fields field in the company profile. In the standard application, the maximum is 35 fields, but administrators can change this limit.

NOTE: The maximum number of fields that can be audited for a record type is shown in the Audit Field Setup page for each record type, but the value cannot be changed in that page.

For information about changing the company settings for the audit trail, see Configuring Company Settings.

Auditing Takes More Time and Resources

Auditing adds processing time to an operation, because the auditing rules must be evaluated when the operation is performed. For update operations, an audit trail record must be generated and stored for each audited field that is updated, so the more fields that you audit on a record type, the longer it takes to save a record of that type.

Audit Trail Configuration

For each of the record types that support the audit trail, you can specify the following:

• Which fields you want to audit.
• Whether you want to track the creation of records.

  NOTE: You cannot deselect the option to track the creation of records in the User audit trail.

• For records that can be deleted, whether you want to track the deletion and restoration of those records.

  NOTE: The option to track the deletion and restoration of records is not available for the User and User Partner Admin audit trails, because such records cannot be deleted.

The audit trail for a record type is enabled as soon as you specify that at least one field is to be audited for the record type, or you select one of the options to track the creation, deletion, and restoration of records.

About Making Audit Trail Records Visible to Users

The audit trail records appear in the Audit Trail related information section in record Detail pages, as described in Viewing Audit Trails for Records. To make the audit trail records visible to users, you must do the following:

• Add the Audit Trail related information section to the relevant layouts for the record Detail page for a record type.

  NOTE: The Audit Trail related information section is not available to add to page layouts for the Asset and Revenue record types. Audit trail information for these record types can be viewed in the Master Audit Trail only.

• Update the relevant user access profiles to allow access to the audit trail records. For example, to allow a user to view the audit trail records on accounts, give the user read-only access to the Audit Trail related information type for the Account record type. For more information about access profiles, see Process of Setting Up Access Profiles.

Administrators can also view the full set of audit trail records for all audited record types in the Master Audit Trail, as described in Reviewing Audit Trail Changes with the Master Audit Trail.

Record Types Audited by Default

The audit trail is enabled by default for the Opportunity and Service Request record types when a company is first set up. In addition, for certain record types that are industry-specific or specific to Oracle CRM On Demand Partner Relationship Management Edition, the audit trail is enabled when the record type is enabled for the company. For all of these record types, the audit trail is set up as follows:

• Certain fields are audited. You can add fields to the list of audited fields, and remove fields from the list.
• The option to track the creation of records and the option to track the deletion and restoration of records are selected. You can change these settings.

For the Opportunity and Service Request record types only, the following items are set up by default:

• The Audit Trail related information section is available in the standard Detail page layout.
• All of the standard access profiles provide read-only access to the audit trail records.

The audit trail is also enabled by default for the User record type when a company is first set up. Certain mandatory fields are audited by default. The option to track the creation of records is also selected, and you cannot change this setting.

The following table lists the record types that support the audit trail, and shows whether the audit trail is enabled for the record type by default. It also lists the fields that are audited by default.

NOTE: If you remove all fields from the list of audited fields for a record type, and if you also deselect the options to track the creation, deletion, and restoration of records, then the audit trail is disabled for the record type.

The following considerations apply to fields regarding auditing:

• For the User audit trail, the mandatory fields are displayed in red text in the list of audited fields. You cannot save the User Audit Trail if you remove any of the mandatory fields from the list of audited fields.
• For foreign key fields, the name (not the ID) is stored and displayed in the audit trail. For example, if the Account field on the Opportunity record type is audited, then the audit trail displays the account name instead of the Row ID.
• No address fields are available for any of the auditable record types.
• Picklist fields show the user’s language dependent values (LDVs).
• ID columns that are not displayed on the layouts are not available for auditing.

The following procedure describes how to customize the audit trail for a record type.

Before you begin. To perform this procedure, your role must include all of the following privileges:

• Customize Application
• Administer Field Audit
• Manage Roles and Access

To customize the audit trail for a record type

1. In the upper-right corner of any page, click the Admin global link.
2. In the Application Customization section, click the Application Customization link.
3. In the Record Type Setup section, click the link for the required record type.
4. In the Field Audit Setup section, click the record type Field Audit Setup link.
5. (Optional) Select Audit record type Record Creation if you want to track the creation of records in the audit trail.
6. (Optional) Select Audit record type Record Deletion/Restore if you want to track the deletion or restoration of records in the audit trail.
7. In the Audit Field Setup page, move fields from the Available fields list to the Audited Fields list as required.

   An error message is displayed if you exceed the company limit.

   The Available Fields list contains all the standard and custom fields for the record type that are not already audited.

8. Click Save.

   Auditing of a field becomes effective immediately after it is enabled.

NOTE: The Invitee, Account Event, Lead Event, and Opportunity Event record types are child record types of the Event record type. You can customize the audit trail fields and configure the Audit Trail related information sections for these record types through the Application Customization pages for the Event record type. You can add the Audit Trail related information section for the Invitee record type to the Invitee Detail page only. You can add the Audit Trail related information section for the Account Event record type to the Account Event Detail page only. You can add the Audit Trail related information section for the Lead Event record type to the Lead Event Detail page only. You can add the Audit Trail related information section for the Opportunity Event record type to the Opportunity Event Detail page only. Also, to allow users to view the audit trail for invitee records, you must update the relevant access profiles to give users read-only access to the Invitee Audit Trail related item for the Event parent record type. To allow users to view the audit trail for Account Event, Lead Event, and Opportunity Event records, you must update the relevant access profiles to give users read-only access to the Audit Trail related item for the Account Event, Lead Event, and Opportunity Event record types.