Configuring auditing

You can configure auditing for use with the analytics tools that are supported by Case Analyzer. You can also configure auditing to track the history of cases by using the Timeline Visualizer widget. You can configure auditing for a deployed solution in a development environment, or in a production environment.

About this task

Choose properties to audit that are meaningful to your business and solution. For example, a financial organization might want to audit properties such as LoanAmount, ApprovalStatus, and Priority. A case analyst might be interested in the number of occurrences of a particular case type, or the length of time that case workers require to complete a particular task.

You specify properties to audit by using the audit configuration wizard in the IBM® Business Automation Workflow Case administration client. Select document properties and properties of each case type for the solution that you want to audit. If tasks are defined for the case type, you can select the task and then select the task properties that you want to audit. To view custom properties in the extended history, you must select those properties for auditing. In addition, some system properties are automatically selected for auditing.

Tip: To save disk space, improve performance, and avoid displaying unnecessary data, do not audit properties with values that are unlikely to change. You can obtain the values of these properties from the case objects.

Audit configuration settings are stored in an audit manifest file. You can move an audit manifest from one environment to another by using the export and import audit configuration wizards. For example, you can create and check your audit configuration in a test environment before you import the audit configuration into production.

After you specify properties to audit and apply the audit configuration to a solution, you can use Case Analyzer to generate chart-based reports that are based on statistical information that is gathered from the system. For information about additional configuration steps that are required before you can use Case Analyzer and other case analytics tools, see Integrating IBM case analytics tools.

To track the extended history of cases by using the Timeline Visualizer widget, you must define a case history store. You can store extended case history data in the database instance that is used for the target object store. Alternatively, you can store extended history data in a separate database instance. For example, you might want to use a separate, remote database server if the I/O throughput is problematic. For more information, see Preparing a database for the case history store.

Procedure

To configure auditing:

  1. Start the Case administration client .
    Enter the following URL in a browser:
    http://server:port/navigator/?desktop=bawadmin
    server is the IBM Content Navigator IP address or fully qualified server name.
    port is the IBM Content Navigator port number.
  2. In the navigation tree in the left pane, select a design object store and click Solutions.
  3. On the Solutions page in the right pane, select the solution that contains the properties you want to audit.
  4. Click Actions > Manage > Audit Configuration and complete the wizard steps.
    You can create an audit configuration, or edit an existing audit configuration. You can save your changes, however, the audit configuration will not take effect until you apply it.
  5. If you plan to use the Timeline Visualizer widget, you must prepare a database to record extended case history data. Then, configure and enable the case history store.
    Attention: If the Content Platform Engine server that serves as the backend to the IBM Business Automation Workflow system is configured as a cluster, configure and enable the case history store when only a single Content Platform Engine server is available. This is typically during a maintenance window when all but one of the application server instances hosting the Content Platform Engine server can be stopped.

    To configure and enable the case history store:

    1. In the IBM Business Automation Workflow Case administration client , in the navigation tree in the left pane, select a target object store and click New Case History Store.
    2. Complete the wizard steps.