Feature proposal: optionally tracking admin user making config changes

GeoServer GeoServer Developer
1

Hi all,
you might remember that years ago we implemented creation and last modification tracking in the GeoServer catalog (GSIP 179). This information can be displayed by tweaking the global settings:

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and results in something like this when displaying configuration pages:

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Now we’d like to add an extra information, the name of the user that performed the last change (goes without saying, said user is an admin).
This is useful for auditing changes in environments having multiple administrators, eventually multiple full admins.

Code wise, it would be pretty similar to the existing date tracking.
I was wondering about enabling tracking only when display is enabled, and making a parallel with file system handling, it might seem like a good idea.
On file sytems, dates are tracked by default, but user tracking needs to be enabled explicitly (auditd for linux, ntfs auditing on windows).

So the listener tracking the user should be enabled only when the flag is enabled, and users would know changes are tracked because a new column appears in the tables (Last user).

Thoughts, feedback?

Cheers
Andrea

1 Like
2

Thanks for the proposal; I think it will be well received:

  • You may wish to provide an application property override for this setting; as admins by change the in-app setting
  • Some kind of clean tool may be desirable for removing users who no longer wish to be listed (incase the username is an email address for example)