LEARNING CUMULUS (POWER TIP):

Using Formulas to Create a History of Metadata Edits

A simple field formula enables Cumulus to time stamp metadata edits, so you’ll know who edited what, and when.

Ever wonder who’s been editing your asset records? Cumulus automatically records the most recent record modification
date, but you can add an easy field formula to your catalogs that will enable you to see a historical record of edits that you
can search, review and refer to when needed.

An overview of the basics.
Even if you don’t know how to program, or you’re
not familiar with field formulas in Cumulus, you’ll
be able to make use of this simple tip. Once we’re
done, what you’ll end up with is a catalog field
that’s automatically updated each time an asset
record is saved. Figure 1 shows how the field
might appear in use.
FIGURE 1: The Edit History field added to an info
window.
Before we get into the setup details, let’s cover
some of the things you need to know up front.
Adding catalog fields You’ll need to know how to
add a new field to your catalog.
Adding fields to view sets You’ll need to know
how to add a field to a view set.
Armed with these skills, let’s get started.
The Edit History field.
The field we’ll use is a standard String type. The
only difference between this field and any other
you might create, is that the contents of our field
will be entered by a formula, not by user input.
Create the new field and configure it using the
settings shown in figure 2.
The magic of the formula
Our formula grabs the login name of the current
user, along with the current date/time, and
inserts those values at the top of the Edit History
field, resulting in a reverse chronological history.
The formula gets the user’s login name from the
$Users catalog. It’s not important to know much
about this special catalog, but refer to the
“What’s the $Users catalog?” sidebar if you’re
curious. The date and time come from a simple
formula function call.
To handle any situations in which there might not
be a user login value available, we’ll check for a
value in that field before we use it. If we don’t find
one, we’ll mention that in our time stamp.
The formula starts with:
userFieldHasValue("Login Name")
If a value exists, the function returns 1; otherwise
we get 0 (zero). If we get a 1, we start building
our time stamp, starting with the date/time:
now()
We add a space after that (for readability) and
then get the user login:
userFieldValue("Login Name")
After that we add a line break and “paste” in the
old field value:
fieldValue("Edit History")

FIGURE 2: Create the new

field using the settings
shown. You can name the
field anything you like.
(Left)

Once the field has been

created, access its Proper-
ties window (right) and
configure it as shown. The
Use Fallback Value option is
useful for debugging, but
because it would wipe out
our previous history if an
error occurs, we don’t
want to use it here.

Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
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LEARNING CUMULUS (POWER TIP): Using Formulas to Create a History of Metadata Edits

FIGURE 3: When first What’s the $Users catalog?

added to a view, a field When you log into Cumulus as the adminis-
defaults to being only a
single line high. Access trator, you seen the $Users catalog listed.
the field’s properties to
adjust that value so that
more can be seen on the
view.

The field configured here

is what’s seen in figure 1.

Cumulus stores your Cumulus Server’s user

accounts in this catalog. Each account is rep-
resented by a record that includes fields for
user name, email address, etc. Formulas can
get user information from these fields.
To see the fields you can use, open a user
account in the Cumulus Server Console, as
shown below. The Login Name field used in
our formula is highlighted. Click the Addi-
tional Fields tab for more fields you can use.

If we checking for a value in the “Login Name”
field we got a zero instead of a 1 (indicating the
field had no value), we’d just add “Unknown
User” in place of the current user name.
When we combine these various functions (with
some additional stuff thrown in for formatting
and logic flow), we get what’s seen in figure 1,
with a new entry added each time the asset
record is saved.
If you copy and paste this formula into the for-
mula editor in your catalog, make sure the field
names used match the ones in your catalog.
View set considerations.
You can add your Edit History field to any view
sets and views you like, but the Info View and
Info Window work best, because scroll bars will
appear when needed.

In its entirety, the formula is: When adding the field to a new view, access the
field’s properties to set the height to a suitable
userFieldHasValue("Login Name") value. Figure 3 shows how you can set the field
? height to 5 lines, which is a good starting value
for this purpose.
now() + " "
If you want to see the field when using the Web
+ userFieldValue("Login Name") + "\n” Client, add it to the Info View, because the Info Want to log user actions too?
Window is not available in the Web Client. Cumulus 8 enables you to log user actions, such
+ fieldValue("Edit History") as previews, downloads, etc., via usage statistics.
: Keep in mind, the field is edited via formula and Search for “Asset Usage History” in the the
not by users, so it will always appear in a read- Cumulus Admin guide PDF for info.
now() + " " only state, regardless of the connected user’s
+ "User Unknown" + "\n” permissions.
This Power Tip is intended to work in all editions of
NOTE: Metadata edits made via the Cumulus Cumulus 7.0 or later.
+ fieldValue("Edit History")
Web Client update Edit History too. (Meta-
NOTE: (“\n” inserts a line break.) data edits are not possible in Cumulus Sites.)

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Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners. Some product
claims and features are not included in all versions of the software and/or might require additional Cumulus Add-ons or Plug-ins.
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