<h3></h3>

<h3>FileMaker Pro 13 Tip-n-nTrick: Easy-Bake FileMaker Pro 13 Audit Trail</h3>

<p><em>By: Doug West</em></p>

<p><span style="color: #000000;">There are many ways to implement audit logs in FileMaker Pro 13, but I’m always on the lookout for the method with the least overhead. If you don’t need separate records in another table for every field change, </span>then you can keep track of field changes using FileMaker 13′s new Get(ModifiedFields) command and the following:</p>

<ol style="color: #000000;">

<li>A custom function to handle the heavy-lifting</li>

<li>A text field to call the custom function and store our change log</li>

<li>A script step to set a list of ignored field names in a script that runs when the file opens</li>

<li>A modification timestamp field to trigger the log</li>

</ol>

<p><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">There’s a good chance that you already have a modification timestamp in your solutions, and the field to store the log itself would be required with any approach. So that means our “overhead” is limited to one custom function and one script step. That makes it quite easy to implement this FileMaker Pro 13 audit trail in any solution.</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">OK, so maybe that was a little too easy! The only problem I’ve found with this approach is that the initial values entered on a new record won’t get tracked unless we commit the record right after it’s created. This file has a custom menu set to override the New Record menu command with a script to take care of this nuance for us. If you already script the new record creation process in your solution, then you can incorporate this additional step into your existing script(s).</span><br style="color: #000000;" /><br style="color: #000000;" /><span style="color: #000000;">What do you think? Can we make this any easier while maintaining the simplicity, performance, and flexibility?</span></p>

<div id="attachment_1229" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="http://www.excelisys.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/EasyBake_AuditTrail.fmp12.zip"><img class="wp-image-1229 size-medium" src="http://www.excelisys.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/FileMakerPro13AuditTrailLog-300x245.png" alt="FileMaker Pro 13 Audit Log Trail" width="300" height="245" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text"><strong>Download Demo File</strong></p></div>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><em><strong>About Doug West:</strong> <a href="http://www.excelisys.com/our-team-custom-database-consultants.php#" target="_blank">Doug</a> is the VP of Product Management/Partner and a Project Manager with <a href="http://www.excelisys.com" target="_blank">Excelisys, Inc.</a> Doug began his career automating routine tasks in OpenVMS, DOS, Windows, and Macintosh operating systems. This led to an extensive prepress automation project using AppleScript to manage files and data in QuarkXPress and Adobe Photoshop, saving the organization hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of all, this helped him develop an appreciation for cost-effective solutions that provide substantial benefits to end users. This core purpose has served him well as a FileMaker Pro Developer since the late 90′s. He occasionally finds time to relax when he’s not building solutions for clients, fixing computers for friends and family, attending his sons’ sporting events, running races in upstate New York, or hiking through the Adirondack Mountains.</em></p>

<p><em><b>About Excelisys, Inc.: </b>Founded in 2001, Excelisys (www.excelisys.com) is an FBA Platinum Partner and FileMaker Certified developer organization specializing in the designing, developing, customizing, supporting, consulting, migrating, upgrading, tweaking, fixing, and integrating of FileMaker Pro solutions, FileMaker Go solutions, MySQL, PostgreSQL, QuickBooks-FileMaker Pro Integration, Excel and MS Access FileMaker Pro conversions/migrations, iPhone and iPad business solutions, and other various database technologies and frameworks that automate your organization’s data solution needs for use on the web, mobile, and desktop platforms. Contact Excelisys today for a free estimate and consultation about your business software automation needs @ 866-592-9235.</em></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><em><a title="Link: http://www.filemaker.com" href="http://www.filemaker.com/">* FileMaker and FileMaker Pro are registered trademarks and owned by FileMaker, Inc. in the US and other countries.</a></em></p>

<a href="http://www.excelisys.com/blog/2014/06/26/filemaker-pro-13-tip-n-trick-easy-bake-filemaker-pro-13-audit-trail/" class='bbc_url' rel='nofollow external'>Source</a>