Kavi® Members Help

Chapter 5. Logging

Different kinds of logs for different purposes

Kavi Members features a comprehensive set of logs for use in member management, the audit trail and troubleshooting. Every change to a user or company's account is logged and available in both an easy-to-scan format and a detailed data-rich format. Logs can be searched and downloaded for use in reports or troubleshooting. Each online account has a link directly to the logs for that account, giving administrators a quick way to see how any change was made.

Kavi Members logs include activity histories, user and company logs, and the full activity log.

Activity history

The activity history for a user or company is a user-friendly view of changes made to that user's or company's record. Every time a change is made to a record, the activity history will add a single line explaining the nature of the change, who made the change, the date and any notes. These notes may be automatically generated or entered manually by administrators when managing accounts. Administrators may use the activity records feature to track activities occurring outside Kavi Members, such as adding an activity record when a moderator approves or rejects a membership application, acompany changes headquarters, a user is manually inactivated, or any other time an administrator wants to record information not normally tracked in Kavi Members.

User and company logs

The user and company logs are scaled-down views of the Full Activity Log focused specifically on tracking changes to either user or company information. Unlike an activity history, these logs do not include administrative notes or independently added activity records.

Full activity log

The Full Activity Log shows all changes to the database in great detail. The Full Activity Log is intended to be used by trained support staff who understand how to read the database numbering scheme shown in the logs. Rather than listing companies and users by name, this log shows the data object (i.e., skin), that was changed. Any new values for updated fields are also shown in this log, including new usernames and passwords. Because of this sensitive information and because of the technical knowledge needed to work with the Full Activity Log, this log is only available to organization administrators and superadmins.

Figure 5.1. Activity history, company log and full activity log

Screenshot showing differing levels of detail in the three logs recorded when adding a company.

This screenshot shows the amount of detail captured by the three different logs when an organization administrator adds a new company. The Activity History, showing a single record, is the easiest to read and generally adequate for any troubleshooting.


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What gets logged

Kavi Members stores data in several different database tables. Almost all changes to the data are recorded in the logs.

Changes logged by Kavi Members

  • New user or company additions

  • Edits to user or company accounts

  • Changes to user or company account status

  • Deletion of user or company accounts

  • Requests for password help

  • Password changes

  • Membership changes, such as membership approval or expiration

  • Email sent to users automatically or through the template-based email tools

  • Email sent to users using the contact forms provided with rosters and directories

  • Kavi Members configuration changes (in the Full Activity Log only)

Kavi Members does not log the following kinds of data, although this information can sometimes be gleaned from the server's web site traffic logs.

Activity not logged by Kavi Members:

  • When users log into the Web site

  • When data is downloaded through the directory

  • When data is downloaded through the reports tools

In addition to the type and time of a change, the logs also show who made the change. The user shown as the originator of the change may be one of the following.

Who initiated action:

A user's username, such as 'joeuser'

If the change was made by a logged-in user, that user's username will be shown. For example, if an organization administrator with a username of 'petey' edited a user using the Edit a User tool, the logs would show 'petey' in the 'Who Initiated Action' column.

Anonymous User

A change made by 'Anonymous User' does not indicate a security problem. Any change made using a publicly accessible form will show 'Anonymous User' in the Who Initiated Action column. Publicly accessible forms include the Password Help and the new company and user application forms. Because the person filling out these forms has not yet logged into the Web site, Kavi Members doesn't know this person's username and cannot store it in the logs.

system

Any change made or action taken automatically by Kavi Members will show 'system' in the 'Who Initiated Action' column. This includes automatic deactivation of users or companies whose membership is not renewed in a timely manner and automated email notifications sent according to the email notification schedule.

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