System and method for configuring and viewing audit trails in an information network

• US 7,574,501 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2001
• Issued: 08/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Yu, Jai-Jein, Louie, David Gok, Wu, Deming
• Primary Examiner(s): WON, MICHAEL YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US09/963,292
• Publication Number:
  US 20070192478A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,877 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/223, 709/229, 709/202, 709/203, 709/212, 709/214, 709/201, 709/245, 709/246, 705/1, 705/51, 707/3, 707/102, 707/9, 717/126, 717/127, 719/318, 719/320, 719/312, 719/328, 719/330
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

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.

Claims

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.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the application program further comprises:

means for detecting when the selected operations are performed.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the application program further comprises:

means for generating an audit transaction record regarding the business component in response to detecting the selected operations.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising means for restricting access to the audit trail by at least one of:

an employee identifier, an employment position, and an area of responsibility.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising means for storing the audit transaction record in an external database.

6. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising means for storing the audit transaction record in a file.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the means for providing the audit trail comprising means for importing the audit transaction record stored in the file to the database.

8. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the audit transaction record includes at least one of:

an identifier for the entity that accessed the business component, the operation that was performed on the business component, when the operation was performed, and how the value of at least a portion of the business component was changed.

9. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising means for querying one or more of the audit transaction records.

10. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising means for prompting a user to enter a comment in response to detecting the selected operations.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more business components further comprise a plurality of fields, and the apparatus further comprising:

means for selecting a selected field of the plurality of fields to be audited, wherein the means for selecting a selected field is further configured to exclude one or more fields of the plurality of fields from auditing; and

means for generating an audit transaction record when one of the selected operations on the selected field is detected.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising means for restoring the selected field to a previous state.

33. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the application further comprises:

means for selecting the audit trail, wherein the audit trail is configured to be selected repetitively;

means for enabling the audit trail, subsequent to selecting the audit trail, wherein the audit trail is configured to be enabled repetitively; and

means for disabling the audit frail, subsequent to selecting the audit frail, wherein the audit trail is configured to be disabled repetitively.

34. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the business component comprises a table which includes information for an item, person, or other entity.

13. A system comprising:

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.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the second set of instructions are further configured to allow a user to restrict access to an audit trail by at least one of:

an employee identifier, an employment position, and an area of responsibility.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory further stores a sixth set of instructions, executable by the processor, configured to store the audit transaction record in a file.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the memory further stores a seventh set of instructions, executable by the processor, configured to import the audit transaction record stored in the file to the database.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the audit transaction record includes at least one of:

an identifier for the entity that accessed the field, the operation that was performed, when the operation was performed, and a previous value of the field, and a current value of the field.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory further stores a sixth set of instructions, executable by the processor, configured to allow a user to query one or more of the audit transaction records.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory further stores a sixth set of instructions, executable by the processor, configured to allow a user to restore one or more of the selected fields to a previous value.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory further stores a sixth set of instructions, executable by the processor, configured to prompt a user to enter a description of the operation in response to detecting the selected operations.

21. A method comprising:

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.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising restricting access to the audit trail by at least one of:

an employee identifier, an employment position, and an area of responsibility.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

detecting when the selected operations are performed on the selected business component; and

generating an audit transaction record in response to detecting the selected operations.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said providing the audit trail comprises storing the audit transaction record in the database.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising storing the audit transaction record in a file.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said providing the audit trail comprises importing the audit transaction record stored in the file to a database.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the audit transaction record includes at least one of:

an identifier for the entity that accessed the business component, the operation that was performed on the business component, when the operation was performed, and how the value of at least a portion of the business component was changed.

28. The method of claim 23, further comprising querying one or more of the audit transaction records.

29. The method of claim 23, further comprising prompting the user to enter a description of the operation in response to detecting the selected operations.

30. The method of claim 21, wherein the selected business component further comprises one or more fields, and the method further comprising:

selecting a selected field of the one or more fields to be audited; and

generating an audit transaction record in response to detecting the selected operations.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising restoring one or more of the selected fields to a previous value.

32. A computer-readable storage medium comprising:

instructions for implementing the method of claim 21.