Track Data Changes

Use an audit trail to track updates made to data values, including changes to Linked Reporting Objects (LROs), such as adding notes, attaching files, and referencing URLs. You can export the log to an Excel spreadsheet.

To view data audit trail records, you must be at least a power user with Database Update permission on the application. You can only view those records where your user name matches the user name registered in the audit records. To delete data audit trail records, you must be at least a power user with Application Manager permission on the application. See Understand Your Access Permissions in Essbase.

• Turn on Data Audit Trail and View the Data Audit Trail
• Link a Reporting Object to a Cell
• Export Logs to a Sheet
• Refresh the Audit Log
• View and Manage Audit Trail Data in the Essbase Web Interface

Turn on Data Audit Trail and View the Data Audit Trail

You turn on data audit trail by adding AUDITTRAIL DATA as an application level configuration setting.

See Set Application-Level Configuration Properties.

1. To turn on Data Audit Trail, add the following to the application configuration parameters: AUDITTRAIL DATA.
2. Perform ad hoc analysis through Smart View, make data changes through Smart View and click on Submit - this results in an audit record being stored.
   When doing ad hoc analysis, there are many ways of getting a particular Point of View (POV) onto the grid. One of them is by using the POV toolbar, which allows you to zoom in on certain members in one or more dimensions. See these topics in Working with Oracle Smart View for Office

   • Selecting Members from the POV Toolbar

   • Displaying the POV Toolbar

   • Selecting Members Using the Cell-Based POV

3. With Data Audit Trail enabled, you can view the audit trail in the connection Panel in Smart View. Under the connection information, click on the menu of operations under More and you will see a menu option titled Audit Trail. Click on Audit Trail to view the data audit trail records for a cube.
   
   
4. The audit trail record shows the date and time of the change in the first column, the new value or the linked reporting object in the second column, and the POV in the third column. The time corresponds to your time zone. Click on an item in the audit trail and you will see a description of the change at the bottom of the pane.
5. You can display a sheet with the new POV and refreshed data value by clicking Ad hoc below the Audit Trail pane. When you click on subsequent audit records and click this icon, you see a different sheet with the POV for that audit record and refreshed data for that POV. This way, you can do further analysis on targeted data.

Link a Reporting Object to a Cell

You can link a reporting object to a cell. When you do, this change displays in the data audit trail. You can add a note to a cell, attach a file, or reference a URL. When you make these changes, the cells are highlighted in your cube. See these topics in the Working with Oracle Smart View for Office on how to link reporting objects to cells:

• Linked Reporting Objects

• Attaching a Linked Reporting Object to a Data Cell

• Launching a Linked Reporting Object from a Data Cell

Export Logs to a Sheet

You can easily export your logs to a new Excel sheet just by clicking an icon.

Export your log onto a new sheet using Export . Click this icon to export the logs with all the details for each entry onto a new sheet that looks like this:

Once exported, you can re-sort columns or remove them to show the information you want to analyze.

Refresh the Audit Log

You can refresh the audit log to see your latest changes at any time.

When you make more changes to your data, you can refresh the log view any time. Click Refresh .

View and Manage Audit Trail Data in the Essbase Web Interface

You can view audit trail data in the Essbase web interface. You can also export the data to an Excel sheet (in .csv format), purge the data before a specific date, or purge all of the audit trail data.

To view and manage audit trail data:

1. On the Applications page, expand the application.
2. Click the Actions menu to the right of the cube name and select Inspect.
3. On the Audit Trail tab, you can:
   • View audit trail data.
   • Export the data to a CSV file.
   • Purge the audit trail data until a specific date.
   • Purge all of the audit trail data.

To purge data audit trail records, you must be a power user with Application Manager permission on the application.