I have seen a very effective implementation of this which goes as follows:
TABLE audit_entry (
audit_entry_id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
audit_entry_type VARCHAR2(10) NOT NULL,
-- ^^ stores 'INSERT' / 'UPDATE' -- / 'DELETE'
table_name VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL,
-- ^^ stores the name of the table that is changed
column_name VARCHAR2(30) NOT NULL,
-- ^^ stores the name of the column that is changed
primary_key_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
-- ^^ Primary key ID to identify the row that is changed
-- Below are the actual values that are changed.
-- If the changed column is a foreign key ID then
-- below columns tell you which is new and which is old
old_id INTEGER,
new_id INTEGER,
-- If the changed column is of any other numeric type,
-- store the old and new values here.
-- Modify the precision and scale of NUMBER as per your
-- choice.
old_number NUMBER(18,2),
new_number NUMBER(18,2),
-- If the changed column is of date type, with or without
-- time information, store it here.
old_ts TIMESTAMP,
new_ts TIMESTAMP,
-- If the changed column is of VARCHAR2 type,
-- store it here.
old_varchar VARCHAR2(2000),
new_varchar VARCHAR2(2000),
...
... -- Any other columns to store data of other types,
... -- e.g., blob, xmldata, etc.
...
)
And we create a simple sequence to give us new incremental integer value for audit_entry_id
:
CREATE SEQUENCE audit_entry_id_seq;
The beauty of a table like audit_entry
is that you can store information about all types of DMLs- INSERT
, UPDATE
and DELETE
in the same place.
For e.g., for insert, keep the old_*
columns null and populate the new_*
with your values.
For updates, populate both old_*
and new_*
columns whenever they are changed.
For delete, just populate the old_*
columns and keep the new_*
null.
And of course, enter the appropriate value for audit_entry_type
. ;0)
Then, for example, you have a table like follows:
TABLE emp (
empno INTEGER,
ename VARCHAR2(100) NOT NULL,
date_of_birth DATE,
salary NUMBER(18,2) NOT NULL,
deptno INTEGER -- FOREIGN KEY to, say, department
...
... -- Any other columns that you may fancy.
...
)
Just create a trigger on this table as follows:
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER emp_rbiud
-- rbiud means Row level, Before Insert, Update, Delete
BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE
ON emp
REFERENCING NEW AS NEW OLD AS OLD
DECLARE
-- any variable declarations that deem fit.
BEGIN
WHEN INSERTING THEN
-- Of course, you will insert empno.
-- Let's populate other columns.
-- As emp.ename is a not null column,
-- let's insert the audit entry value directly.
INSERT INTO audit_entry(audit_entry_id,
audit_entry_type,
table_name,
column_name,
primary_key,
new_varchar)
VALUES(audit_entry_id_seq.nextval,
'INSERT',
'EMP',
'ENAME',
:new.empno,
:new.ename);
-- Now, as date_of_birth may contain null, we do:
IF :new.date_of_birth IS NOT NULL THEN
INSERT INTO audit_entry(audit_entry_id,
audit_entry_type,
table_name,
column_name,
primary_key,
new_ts)
VALUES(audit_entry_id_seq.nextval,
'INSERT',
'EMP',
'DATE_OF_BIRTH',
:new.empno,
:new.date_of_birth);
END IF;
-- Similarly, code DML statements for auditing other values
-- as per your requirements.
WHEN UPDATING THEN
-- This is a tricky one.
-- You must check which columns have been updated before you
-- hurry into auditing their information.
IF :old.ename != :new.ename THEN
INSERT INTO audit_entry(audit_entry_id,
audit_entry_type,
table_name,
column_name,
primary_key,
old_varchar,
new_varchar)
VALUES(audit_entry_id_seq.nextval,
'INSERT',
'EMP',
'ENAME',
:new.empno,
:old.ename,
:new.ename);
END IF;
-- Code further DML statements in similar fashion for other
-- columns as per your requirement.
WHEN DELETING THEN
-- By now you must have got the idea about how to go about this.
-- ;0)
END;
/
Just one word of caution: be selective with what tables and columns you choose to audit, because anyways, you this table will have a huge number of rows. SELECT
statements on this table will be slower than you may expect.
I would really love to see any other sort of implementation here, as it would be a good learning experience. Hope your question gets more answers, as this is the best implementation of an audit table that I have seen and I'm still looking for ways to make it better.