History- base class

The History- base class is an abstract class that is parent to numerous other classes that define cumulative tracking data about the objects in your application, including rule instances.

History instances identify date, time, and user who updated a work item, rule, or other object in the system. A history instance may also contain attachments, notes made by this user, or an internal copy of the entire instance as it was before the update. In some cases, the historical copy can be used to undo changes or roll back an object to its previous values and state.

For users, the value of the history is to promote accountability and to identify the sources of automatic and manual processing of the object.

Generally. application developers do not need to create History- classes explicitly. When you add a new concrete class under the Work-, Data-, or Assign- base class, the system automatically creates a similar class to contain history details of that class, using the new class name as the trailing portion of the History- class name.

Adding history instances

History classes are created automatically in many cases:

• Work objects — Instances of concrete classes derived from History-Work- class are created when a work item advanced through a flow, typically through the Work-.AddHistory activity. Others are added automatically. History are visible on the work history report, typically accessed from the History tab on the user form. See the PDN article How to control history instances written to the audit trail.
• Rules — Instances of the concrete History-Rule class are created when you create a rule (with Save or Save As after New) when you save a rule into a ruleset not requiring check-out, and when you check in a rule into a ruleset that requires check-out. These are visible from the History tab of the rule form. The history instance for a checked-in rule contains the entire previous contents of the rule before update.
• Data — Instances of concrete classes derived from the History-Data- class are created when a form (such as the Operator ID form) is saved or when a Data Table row is saved. Note: Data tables are now superseded by local data storage.

In other situations where history is needed, your application can include an activity that calls the History-Add method.

Deleting History- classes

When you delete an empty concrete Work-, Data-, or Assign- class, the system deletes the associated History- class if it is also empty.

For a work item, the history display is sometimes called an audit trail.

Security audit feature

Using the optional security audit feature, your application can present in the History details display which values were added, updated, or removed from a rule or data instance.

Related terms

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