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I need any notification when a date field on my custom form is changed? How to do this?

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Level 10
I need any notifications when a date field on my custom form is changed? How to do this? I need to monitor changes to all of our projects. The date fields of interest are on a custom form. How can I be notified that the date field has been modified across any of the projects? I would be happy with running a report, if that is possible. I just need to know when the date field s are modified. I will also be happy if the date field on the custom form could have an approval associated with it. Or if that custom field could be linked to a task. I am looking for any out of the box method to know when that date field in the custom form change.
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20 Replies

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Level 10

I don't know a way to get an email notification, but there is a report you can create and montior that.

First, you need to make sure in the custom form you have "Display field changes in update feeds" select for those date fields.

You should then do a test so you can see how the text appears since I'm not sure what your fields are called.

You can then create a Note report with the filter project owner ID equals you and then audit text contains some of the text as it displayed in your test. (i.e. Audit text contains "Deliverable date changed").

We have something simliar for our Project Owner but it just for updates people type in so I filter out the other updates but they like it to see what peopel are saying across all their projects without having to click into each one. I have a prompt for entry date so they can decide how far back they want to go (this is great for when they come back from vacation)0690z000007ZkMeAAK.png

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Level 10
Great. Thanks. I will try this now.

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Level 10
Hi Anthony, In your sample note report, you have a column called 'Issue, Task or Document Name'. Where do you get this from? I can only add the 3 columns separately, and it would be much better to have them all in the one column as you do. Also, are you sure that monitored field updates will show in a Note report? I can only see them on the Updates tab of the projects, but they don't show in the Notes report. Only user comments and status changes/approvals seem to show. Regards, David

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Level 10
Hi David, Well, you are right... the updates from a custom field do not show up on a Note report. :( I'm going to have to play around more to figure out how to call those out! As for the combine column of task, issue or document, here is the code: column.2.displayname=Issue, Task, or Document Name column.2.linkedname=opTask column.2.namekey=view.relatedcolumn column.2.namekeyargkey.0=opTask column.2.namekeyargkey.1=name column.2.querysort=opTask:name column.2.sharecol=true column.2.sortOrder=2 column.2.sortType=desc column.2.textmode=true column.2.valuefield=opTask:name column.2.valueformat=HTML column.2.width=120 column.3.displayname= column.3.linkedname=task column.3.namekey=view.relatedcolumn column.3.namekeyargkey.0=task column.3.namekeyargkey.1=name column.3.querysort=task:name column.3.sharecol=true column.3.textmode=true column.3.valuefield=task:name column.3.valueformat=HTML column.3.width=0 column.4.displayname= column.4.linkedname=document column.4.namekey=view.relatedcolumn column.4.namekeyargkey.0=document column.4.namekeyargkey.1=name column.4.querysort=document:name column.4.textmode=true column.4.valuefield=document:name column.4.valueformat=HTML

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Level 10
Ah, very clever.....thanks. And please let us know if you work out how to get the other Notes on the report.

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Level 8
When you're in the custom form builder and you're looking at the date field, on the right side where you put in all the information, there is also a check box that says "Display field changes in updates feed". This won't give you a notification necessarily, but the information will still be tracked in the updates area.

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Level 10
Have you discovered how to track when the project completion date change? or when a custom date field change? I still need to know how to do this?

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Level 7
" or when a custom date field change?" Anthony gave you the solution for this below. Did this not work for you? It should.

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Level 10
nothing has worked for me. I tried that notes report. [image: APS Payroll logo] Benetta Perry New Client Setup Specialist p: 318-222-9774 f: 318-222-0601 e: bperry@apspayroll.com www.apspayroll.com < ">http://www.facebook.com/apspayroll> < ">https://twitter.com/apspayroll> < ">https://plus.google.com/u/1/101565211370298693012/posts> < ">http://www.linkedin.com/company/aps-payroll> The information contained in this transmission may contain privileged and confidential information. It is intended only for the use of the person(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or duplication of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 7:03 AM, Greg Beck < globalforum@communitylists.workfront.com> wrote: > "or when a custom date field change?" > > Anthony gave you the solution for this below. Did this not work for you? > It should. > > -----End Original Message----- >

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Level 7
Hi Benetta, It works (Anthony's original response), so maybe you could tell us specifically what you've done and what's not working and we can help you. Greg

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Level 10
Hi Greg, I believe the issue is that Bennetta wants to report on custom date fields which have changed, however Note Reports don't include these type of updates (even though changes can be displayed on the Updates tab. It would be good if a Workfront Product Manager could give us their input here, but I think this would need a feature request to resolve. The ability to be able to access (e.g. for reporting/filtering) the date/time when an individual field last changed would also be very useful for us. At the moment you are limited to the last date/time change for the whole line, and then you need to go and look at the Updates tab to work out what changed. Regards, David

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Level 7

Hi David,

Yes, I believe that's what I'm saying - it DOES work to report on a custom date field when it changes. I'm doing it and I see the changes in a Note report. (see attached for result and filter)0690z000007ZkD8AAK.jpg

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Level 10
OK - I can see that on your report, but on our system no custom field updates show up on the Notes Report. Perhaps I've missed a setting somewhere, but I don't think so! Regards, David

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Community Advisor
Hi Greg, David, and Benetta. I might be able to explain what's going on. Back in the day, NOTES could be set up to record "pretty much everything". When Anaconda (R16) rolled out a few years back, Workfront introduced the JOURNAL object, which is where Update From Feed audit information goes (among other built in system events). Along the way, the ability to turn on the full NOTE auditing was removed from the Workfront user interface. So, if Greg is testing with a "legacy" object that was created back in the pre-Anaconda days (or "from one that was", such as a new Issue on an old Request Queue Project), the audit of the custom data changes would be grandfathered into the NOTES objects he's seeing. Conversely, if David and Benetta are working in post-Anaconda environments, the NOTES audit would be "off" by default, hence, no audit data. Regards, Doug

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Level 10
Thanks for the info, Doug. At the moment, you can't report on Journal objects via the UI (as far as I can see). However, as I'm sure you already know (and use) the Journal object is available via the API. I've tested it and I can read out the journal entries (including old and new dates). This doesn't help users in the UI however!

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Level 7
Well, before I initially responded to this thread, I did the test in my Preview environment - created a brand new Issue Custom Form and a brand new date field for the test and added it to an issue. We were using Workfront before Anaconda. Are you (Doug) saying that's why I'm seeing it?

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Community Advisor
Yes, that's my theory, Greg. Furthermore... If the Issue to which you added the new custom form was created off an "old" Project form with the grandfathered, I'd expect NOTES when you edit the custom data on the Issue. If, on the other hand, the Issue was off a "newer" Project (or, in the name of science, you created a brand new Project from scratch), I'd expect no NOTES when you edit the custom data on the Issue. Regards, Doug

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Level 7
I was up for the challenge. I created a new project, added a new issue, and attached the custom form to the issue and changed the date. I also did it to the project I had been testing with (which was an old project), and lo and behold (and I had no doubt :-)), Doug was right. The change in date did NOT show up for the new project, but did for the old. Well, that case is solved, and too bad it worked out that way!

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Level 10
Whilst the end result doesn't really help Bennetta, this cooperation is still an amazing example of why the Community is so valuable for us all. Thanks Greg and Doug.

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Community Advisor
Huzzah, Greg! Thanks for confirming my theory. As you, David, and another colleague of mine in a parallel conversation today all point out, the inconsistency leads to a Catch-22: you can turn on Updates From Feed and count on getting the audit data in the JOURNAL object but not be able to report on it via a Workfront report, OR create a Workfront NOTES report, but (as your test proved) risk certain audits being missed, depending on the vintage of the underlying objects. This was a big deal to me when I first noticed it a few years ago. Our Workfront-based vertical for the Oil & Gas industry (www.espsuite.ca) includes Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) information, and to keep workers safe (and mitigate liability), auditability is critical. So for our clients, we created "Audit Projects" and "Audit Tasks" solutions to effectively "turn on" the old NOTES auditing from pre-Anaconda days. That way, we can write Workfront based NOTES reports, AND rely on the audit information always being there. Ironically, we recently delisted those solutions (now Private, vs Public) because no one but us has run them in ages, and officially, Workfront no longer supports the old way. But for us, they resolved the Catch-22. So far... Regards, Doug