Change Timeline

Updated on 12 Jul 2024
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The Change Timeline widget is a configurable tool designed to visually represent changes made to key fields within a record. This widget allows users to track the history of modifications over time, offering a clear and concise view of how the data has evolved.

Change Timeline widget represents the changes in a chronological sequence. This helps users quickly identify what alterations were made, when they occurred, and who made them. It also helps in maintaining transparency, accountability, and a comprehensive understanding of the record’s progression.Figure: Change timeline in Messages tab

Let's explore the following use-case to understand Change Timeline widget in Apex:

Use Case

User Persona: Application Designer

Solution

At NovaTech Change management system, keeping track of modifications to important fields is becoming challenging. Analyst often face difficulties in understanding what changes were made, who made them, and when they occurred. This lack of visibility can lead to issues such as miscommunication, errors in data handling, and reduced accountability. Such errors can lead to poor decision-making processes and operational efficiency.

To address this issue, Application Designer can introduce Change Timeline widget to track modifications to critical fields such as priority, urgency and so on. This widget enhanced transparency by displaying a chronological history of changes ensures that all alterations are visible and preventing any hidden modifications.

It also improves accountability by including the name of the user who made each change, promoting responsibility and traceability. Auditing becomes more efficient as analyst can quickly view the timeline to identify when and what changes were made, eliminating the need to sift through extensive logs or reports.

Configure Change Timeline

Configure the Change Timeline widget in the Form Designer to track the status changes made in the ticket in a chronological manner.Figure: Configuration of Change Timeline

To configure Change Timeline widget, perform the following steps:

Navigate to Form Designer > Design Form > Widgets.
Drag and drop Change Timeline widget on to the Form canvas.Figure: Drag and drop widget
Hover over the added control to access Settings and Delete icon.
Figure: Change timeline widget - settings icon
Clickicon to configure properties of the Change Timeline widget. A configuration pop-up is displayed.

On the configuration pop-up, the following tabs are there where you can configure the Star Rating control:

PropertiesFigure: Properties tab

Properties

Properties tab is where you an configure the general properties such as label, fields whose changes have to be captured etc. The following table describes the fields of the General Properties section:

Refer the below table for the different fields and their descriptions in the Properties tab:

Field	Description
Label*	Specify the name for the Change Timeline widget. This name identifies the widget on the form. Example: Messages, Prioritization History, etc. A validation message in red appears if the Label field is left empty. Following is a sample screenshot:Figure: Validation message
Sort	Select whether the nodes in the Change Timeline should appear in ascending or descending order.
Field*	Define on which Fields value change an event should be captured on the Change Timeline by choosing appropriate fields from Fields dropdown menu. All the fields from the current form will be displayed and you can choose 1 field at a time. Refer the below screenshot where Message is chosen as the Field value: Figure: Message Field - end user view
Icon	Upload an icon for the Change Timeline widget that will display along with the Field at the consumer end. Choose an icon from the icons list available or filter the icons by text for quick search. Delete or change the selected icon anytime.
Color	Add color to the selected icon for the Change Timeline widget. Click the color box and the color palette will be displayed.
Include Label	Toggle the switch button to include the Label in the Change Timeline widget when it appears to the end users. The below screenshot displays an example where the Label switch was enabled for User Communication and Private Log timelines: Figure: Label switch enabled
'+' Button	Add a new row to select next field whose changes are to be captured into the Change Timeline widget by clicking on the '+' button.
	Click delete icon to delete any selected row. A confirmation message is displayed before deleting it.

Once you have filled in all the details in the Change Timeline configuration window, click Save to save all the details. Click Cancel in case you do not want to configure the Change Timeline widget.

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What's Next

Efforts

Table of contents

Configure Change Timeline
Properties