System and method for configuring and viewing audit trails in an information network
First Claim
1. An apparatus comprising:
- an application program comprisingone or more business components, wherein a business component comprises one or more fields, whereinthe fields correspond to records in a database, and the database is separate from the application program,means for selecting for auditing a business component from the one or more business components,means for selecting for auditing one or more selected operations of a plurality of operations, whereinthe selected operations include one or more of;
update, add, copy, and delete,the operations are configured to operate on the selected business component, andthe means for selecting for auditing one or more selected operations is further configured to exclude one or more operations of the plurality of operations from auditing,means for creating an audit trail for the application program, andmeans for providing the audit trail to the database associated with the fields of the business component.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An audit trail system allows a user to configure and view an audit trail of changes that have been made to various types of information that can be accessed by one or more users in a network of computer systems. The various types of information are grouped in business components. A user can select particular business components, and fields within a business component, to be audited. The audit trail shows who has accessed the business component, the operation performed, when the operation was performed, and how the value of at least a portion of the business component was changed. Users can track when operations such as update, create, delete, and copy are performed on the selected business components, as well as track which employee modified a certain field and the data that has been changed. Users can also reconstruct records that existed at a certain point of time. Options to restrict access to audit trails by selected areas of responsibility, positions, and/or employee identifiers, can also be included. Audit trails can be written to one or more local files and periodically imported into a central database.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
an application program comprising one or more business components, wherein a business component comprises one or more fields, wherein the fields correspond to records in a database, and the database is separate from the application program, means for selecting for auditing a business component from the one or more business components, means for selecting for auditing one or more selected operations of a plurality of operations, wherein the selected operations include one or more of;
update, add, copy, and delete,the operations are configured to operate on the selected business component, and the means for selecting for auditing one or more selected operations is further configured to exclude one or more operations of the plurality of operations from auditing, means for creating an audit trail for the application program, and means for providing the audit trail to the database associated with the fields of the business component. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 33, 34)
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13. A system comprising:
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a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor and storing a first set of instructions, executable by the processor, configured to provide a business component, wherein the business component comprises one or more fields, wherein the fields correspond to records in a database, and the database is separate from the application program, a second set of instructions, executable by the processor, configured to provide a user interface, wherein the user interface is configured to allow selection for auditing of a selected field of the one or more fields and one or more selected operations on the selected field, wherein the selected operations include one or more of;
update, add, copy, and delete, and is further configured to allow selection for excluding from auditing one or more selected operations,a third set of instructions, executable by the processor, configured to detect when the selected operations are performed on the selected field, a fourth set of instructions, executable by the processor, configured to generate an audit transaction record regarding the selected field in response to detecting the selected operations, and a fifth set of instructions, executable by the processor, configured to provide the audit transaction record to the database associated with the fields of the business component. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method comprising:
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auditing an application program wherein said auditing comprises creating an audit trail; and using the application program to perform audit trail functions comprising generating a list of business components included in the application program, wherein a business component of the list of business components comprises one or more fields, wherein the fields correspond to records in a database, and the database is separate from the application program, presenting the list of business components to a user, allowing the user to select for auditing a selected business component, presenting a list of operations that can be performed on the selected business component to the user, wherein the selected operations include one or more of;
update, add, copy, and delete,allowing the user to select for auditing one or more selected operations for the selected business component, allowing the user to exclude from auditing one or more selected operations for the selected business component, and providing the audit trail to the database associated with the fields of the business component. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification