Audit Log
Many of our COMET clients are aware that our system logs (a.k.a. remembers) all user activity from the moment they log-in to COMET, either via the web UI or via our native mobile apps. The key information we store relate to each successful login, any changes to the data managed by Comet in our backend database (a.k.a. create, update or delete commands), and any attempts to violate the permissions allocated to their user profiles. Accessing and interpreting this data, collected over time, is a very complicated and cumbersome process.
Knowing how valuable this information can be for the client, we have invested considerable time and effort to tackle this big technical challenge, and develop a simple tool which allows the tenant level Superuser to generate an audit report for a specific entity or a specific user.
This exciting new functionality allows the Superuser to quickly get an audit report directly from Comet WEB UI or from the Comet Admin app.
Access in the Admin App
Access to the Admin app is available via a direct link, by adding /appadmin to your Comet homepage address, e.g. http://comet.concacaf.com/appadmin or http://comet.irishfa.com/appadmin . Access is authorized to users with Superuser role on the level of the National association or Confederation (tenant level), via the SSO feature of our trusted Keycloak IAM system.
With the latest release of Comet Admin app, you will see a new menu option on the left, called Audit Log. The screen is divided in two tabs, which allow you to search by either User or Entity.
If you wish to investigate activity of a specific user, then you will be required to select this user from the list all available users under your tenant (organization), and also to specify the time period of the activity that may be of interest to you by entering Date from and Date to. You can narrow down the search to a more specific time as well, in half-hour intervals.
Note: Considering the large amount of data in the audit logs and the processing required for each search, the maximum time period has been limited to 15 days per search. You will notice that the system automatically controls the end date of your search, as soon at your select the start date.
When you complete the input parameters, you will be able to start the search by clicking on the button below “Export to Excel”. As the button clearly suggests, the generated results will be exported to Excel and emailed to the address provided in your user account.
If you wish to investigate changes related to a specific entity, then switch to the second tab of the Audit Log functionality. You are required to select 1 of the available entity types presented in the list: Person, Organization, Competition, Match, Case or User. And you are also required to enter the COMET ID of that same entity, be it person or competition, etc.
As explained previously, when you complete the input parameters, then you will be able to start the search by clicking on the button “Export to Excel”. The generated results will be exported to Excel and emailed to the address provided in your user account. Please note that the search is designed to compile the report not only for that specific entity, but also for related information. For example, when you search for a specific person, the system checks if there were any relevant changes to the person entity, and also person’s registrations, contracts, contacts, titles and licenses, etc.
Access from Profiles in COMET UI
The same report just described above can be generated directly from the Comet UI. For any of the above mentioned entities, tenant level Superuser can obtain the same excel file by opening the entity-specific screen, clicking on Options and selecting Audit Log. For example, if you are investigating changes made to a player’s date of birth or a recent registration, you can open the profile of this player, click on the Options button (located below the photo) and click on Audit Log. The same option is available on the profile of any Organization, Competition, Match, Disciplinary case or User.
Important Notes
In multi-tenant implementations of COMET, audit results are filtered by tenant, which simply put means that you will be allowed to see activity related to your own users only.
Time stamp in the Date/time field of each row is expressed in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time), which is a world-wide accepted standard.
The logs are collected in the New Audit Log database as of 13 July 2022. Would you need to access Audit Log entries that were logged prior to that date, this will require the old procedure using the support channel.