History
The history of a list or an object traces all changes to an object. An object history is maintained for nearly all objects in XDM. It fulfills two functions in XDM: on the one hand, it serves as a log for all changes and, on the other hand, it enables reverting of previous changes.
History as log for changes
The history of an object lists every change to this object: Creation, every adaptation and also the deletion. The point in time of the change and the user who made the change are specified so every user with the required authority can follow. Entries in the history cannot be deleted, so that the history is also useful for audit and revision purposes.
- Example 1
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As part of the development of a modification set, the combination of several modification rules is tested. The history of the modification set documents the course of the test. All steps that were carried out as part of the test are documented there.
- Example 2
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A user was on vacation for two weeks and wants to know whether the passwords of a connection have been updated in the meantime. This can be checked in the history of the credential.
The passwords themselves are not displayed, here you can only see the change. - Example 3
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We take up the test of the modification set again. During the test it turns out that the settings for the rules have been adjusted in many places and you want to go back to an old state in order to start again from there. This can be achieved using the Restore function of the change history.
Restore function
The history function also allows you to revert an object to a previous state. In this case a corresponding YAML file is created, which contains all settings and child objects, which the object had at the previous state.
| If a deleted object is reinstated from the XDM list history, the original object is not restored, rather a new object is created with the configuration of the deleted object. The history for the new object begins at the time of the restore action. |
| Once a deleted object has been restored, it is not possible to revert to a version prior to when the object was restored. Attempting to do so will fail, because XDM tries to create a second object with the same name as the restored object. |
List History and Object History
The history of an object can be accessed in two places: On the one hand, in the Object History for the object itself, and, on the other hand, in the List History of any list that contains this object. The list history shows all objects that have at any time existed in the list, including deleted objects. This allows you to revert object deletions. Deleted objects are only listed for users with administrator privileges.