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Memo fields in an audit trail.

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    Memo fields in an audit trail.

    The audit trail that I'm preparing writes any character, number or date fields that change to an audit table. Memo fields are a bit more of a problem - I can't figure out how to detect changes to a Memo field.

    The built-in Addin.run("audit_trail") feature doesn't seem to log changes to Memo fields either.

    Any suggestions?

    Thanks.

    #2
    RE: Memo fields in an audit trail.

    Have you considered comparing the text when the record pointer leaves the record with the text in the memo field when focus arrives at the record?

    -- tom

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Memo fields in an audit trail.

      Hi,


      Instead of an audit trail, I just don't allow edits to my memo field (in a clinical drug trials database). I have the memo field disabled and a button on top of the little pencil icon that plays an action script. The action script displays an xdialog message box (multi-line text box) and the user's input is written to a variable. The second action in the script writes the input in the variable to the end of the current memo field along with a message stating that it was updated on a particular date by that user. Then the 3rd action of the script saves the record. So basically, only information can be added to the end of the memo. The memo cannot be edited in any other way, it can only be added to.

      This may not be what you have in mind, but it is the perfect solution for me. If corrections need to be made due to an error in the memo field, the user must explicitly state that they are correcting some misinformation in the memo (which is the way it should be done in a clinical drug trial anyway).

      Robin

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Memo fields in an audit trail.

        Hi Robin:

        I work for a small medical device CRO as a clinical database programmer and have taken a recent interest in Alpha 5. We've recently purchased a SAS-based vendor solution for data management and have been moving away from Access. However, we still have the need for some custom programming to accomplish related tasks, and compliance may still be an issue with these. I am curious to hear about your experience with Alpha, particularly as it relates to 21 CFR Part 11 compliance issues. This thread mentions an audit trail add-in. Does this feature apply to all field changes (except memo)? Have you found it easy/difficult to adapt Alpha to the clinical environment?

        Steve

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          #5
          RE: Memo fields in an audit trail.

          Hi Steve,

          I am a pharmacist working in an Investigational Pharmacy, so my database application is basically for keeping inventory records for investigational agents.
          Alpha 5 version 5 is extremely easy to use and to learn programming with. A lot of what I have done could not have been accomplished with Access (at least not on my own).

          I don't allow any edits to my database for the inventory keeping. All corrections of the data require new entries, rather than modification of the existing data. So I don't know that much about the audit trail feature. Meeting some of the government requirements for electronic record keeping can be difficult, but it is certainly doable with Alpha 5. If you have specific questions, feel free to email me and I will try to answer your questions as to how I handle CFR 21 requirements. Also, you may be aware that there is a Guidance Document from DHHS for Computerized Systems Used in Clinical Trials (http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/bimo/ffinalcct.pdf).

          Best regards,
          Robin Sculthorpe

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Memo fields in an audit trail.

            Thanks Robin, that solution works perfectly.

            Comment


              #7
              RE: Memo fields in an audit trail.

              This is a great solution to what I want to do as well but I ran into a little snag along the way.

              As I was creating the script using action scripting, at the 2nd action where I wanted to use the "Add text to Memo Field", I get a "Object Name not valid" error. I am only selecting from the drop down box of the genie so I can't figure out the error. The object I am selecting is a memo field.

              Any thoughts on what I am missing?

              Comment


                #8
                RE: Memo fields in an audit trail.

                Hi,

                What is your memo field named? From what I understand from this forum, it is probably not a good practice to name a memo field "memo".

                If that's not the problem, I don't know what it might be. If you could zip up your database and put it here on the forum, someone may be able to figure it out.

                Best regards,
                Robin

                Comment


                  #9
                  RE: Memo fields in an audit trail.

                  Thanks but no, I did not leave the name of the memo field as "memo".

                  In as much as I would like to show something, there's nothing to zip that would illustrate the problem. The problem is I can't proceed with the script I am trying to create.

                  This is how I wanted the script to be for a button's OnPush event:

                  Display an Xdialog box
                  Add text to Memo field (to insert the text from the dialog box to the memo field)

                  The latter is the part where I run into the problem. Following the action scripting, I select the form from the drop down list then I try to select the memo field from another drop down list. This is when I get the "Object name not valid" error! So no script.

                  (Heavy sigh.)

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