Auditing Document Transactions in Alfresco Share

A frequent need for many of our customers is the ability to audit activity on a document in the Alfresco repository.  An easy way to do this is via a subscription to the Formtek Auditing Extension for Alfresco.

The Auditing Extension is one of several extensions to Alfresco that Formtek offers to enhance your Alfresco implementation.

The Auditing Extension is Integrated with Alfresco Share

For every object accessible via Alfresco Share, the Auditing Extension records the action performed, the date and time the action occurred, the user who performed the action, and optional details on the action. Each document and folder maintains its own auditing information, and any user who can access the document or folder can also view its audit log.

The Auditing Extension records standard Alfresco transactions such as Create, Edit Properties, Update Properties, Checkout, Download, Upload New Version, Move to, Copy to, Manage Permissions, Manage Aspects, Delete Document, and more.  It will also record actions initiated by other installed Formtek extensions (i.e. File Linking, Peer Association, Version Browser, and the Engineering Data Management Module).

So, what does it look like?  Here’s a screenshot of an audit of a single document.

Audit History for a Single Object

Selecting “More” provides additional information about the action performed.

Additional Capabilities for Administrators

If you are an administrator, you may access the admin console and use the Audit History Search Panel to search for audit records for different types of content stored in the repository. Audit records include the following information:

• Timestamp – When the action occurred
• Action – The action performed
• User – The user who performed the action
• Type – The type of item on which the action was performed
• Name – The name of the item on which the action was performed.

Here’s a screenshot.

Audit History Search Panel with Results

The admin console also provides an effective means for an administrator to search for active and/or completed workflows. Workflow records include the following information:

• Description – The workflow message
• Initiator – The user who started the workflow
• Start Date – The workflow start date
• Due Date – The workflow due date
• End Date – The date the workflow completed
• Priority – The workflow priority (1=High, 2=Medium, and 3=Low)
• Status – The workflow status, either Active or Completed
• Details – A link to the details of the workflow in a new window.

Workflow History Results List

Need more information?  You can watch this short demo video.