Sometimes, data in your databases is so sensitive that you need to know if the contents of a field ever change. This can also apply to debugging hard to find problems where a field is getting changed and you just can’t find out how or where that change is happening.
Since release 8.06, Kisco’s powerful iFileAudit software now includes just such a feature. Once a file has been registered for audit tracking, you can configure the system to watch a specific field in a file. If the contents of any record in the database changes, an alert will be issued in the form of a message sent to a message queue within the product. You can then monitor that message queue for new messages arriving at the queue.
The first step in the process is to register the file to the product. Using Kisco’s Bluescape browser interface, registering your file will look like this:
If you are using the traditional green screen interface, this file registration looks like this:
Once the file has been registered, then you can work with the fields that are include in the database by selecting the FIELDS button at the top of the Bluescape panel:
Using the green screen interface, the field list looks like this:
In our example, the field ADTYPE (Address Type) is the critical field that we want to track. In Bluescape, clicking on the setting allows you to change it; fields can be either included in tracking, excluded from tracking or included and alerted on when they change. Using the green screen interface, the alert value is ‘2'.
Once this is all set, whenever the field is changed and that change is picked up by iFileAudit, an alert will be sent to the new IFALERT message queue in the iFileAudit application library. The message looks like this:
It has been optimized to integrate well with Kisco’s iEventMonitor software which can then convert this alert into an email or text notification. The alert reports the name of the library, file and field that was changed. It also lets you know the record key for the record that was changed and the from and to values of the field change itself.
Whether you are tracking critical data or using this tool for debugging purposes, this will help to point you in the right direction to address the issue.
