Get audit history records of any entity record as per CRM view

Question

I want to display all audit history data as per MS CRM format.

I have imported all records from AuditBase table from CRM to another Database server table.

I want this table records using SQL query in Dynamics CRM format (as per above image).

I have done so far

select 
AB.CreatedOn as [Created On],SUB.FullName [Changed By],
Value as Event,ab.AttributeMask [Changed Field],
AB.changeData [Old Value],'' [New Value] from Auditbase AB

inner join StringMap SM on SM.AttributeValue=AB.Action and SM.AttributeName='action'
inner join SystemUserBase SUB on SUB.SystemUserId=AB.UserId

--inner join MetadataSchema.Attribute ar on ab.AttributeMask = ar.ColumnNumber
--INNER JOIN MetadataSchema.Entity en ON ar.EntityId = en.EntityId and en.ObjectTypeCode=AB.ObjectTypeCode

--inner join Contact C on C.ContactId=AB.ObjectId
where objectid='00000000-0000-0000-000-000000000000' 
Order by AB.CreatedOn desc

My problem is AttributeMask is a comma separated value that i need to compare with MetadataSchema.Attribute table's columnnumber field. And how to get New value from that entity.

I have already checked this link : Sql query to get data from audit history for opportunity entity, but its not giving me the [New Value].

NOTE : I can not use "RetrieveRecordChangeHistoryResponse", because i need to show these data in external webpage from sql table(Not CRM database).

Forsaken

You might want to post the SQL code you've tried so far... – Allhallowmas

Audit table will have old value & new value, but not current value. Current value will be pushed as new value when next update happens. – Delate

to help you - marcuscrast.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/… – Delate

Like Arun Vinoth explained, the new value can be found in a succeeding audit entry or - if this does not exist - as the current value of the record field. A more extensive explanation can be found on #32066776. – Decalcify

Answer 1

Well, basically Dynamics CRM does not create this Audit View (the way you see it in CRM) using SQL query, so if you succeed in doing it, Microsoft will probably buy it from you as it would be much faster than the way it's currently handled :)

But really - the way it works currently, SQL is used only for obtaining all relevant Audit view records (without any matching with attributes metadata or whatever) and then, all the parsing and matching with metadata is done in .NET application. The logic is quite complex and there are so many different cases to handle, that I believe that recreating this in SQL would require not just some simple "select" query, but in fact some really complex procedure (and still that might be not enough, because not everything in CRM is kept in database, some things are simply compiled into the libraries of application) and weeks or maybe even months for one person to accomplish (of course that's my opinion, maybe some T-SQL guru will prove me wrong).

So, I would do it differently - use RetrieveRecordChangeHistoryRequest (which was already mentioned in some answers) to get all the Audit Details (already parsed and ready to use) using some kind of .NET application (probably running periodically, or maybe triggered by a plugin in CRM etc.) and put them in some Database in user-friendly format. You can then consume this database with whatever external application you want.

Also I don't understand your comment:

I can not use "RetrieveRecordChangeHistoryResponse", because i need to show these data in external webpage from sql table(Not CRM database)

What kind of application cannot call external service (you can create a custom service, don't have to use CRM service) to get some data, but can access external database? You should not read from the db directly, better approach would be to prepare a web service returning the audit you want (using CRM SDK under the hood) and calling this service by external application. Unless of course your external app is only capable of reading databases, not running any custom web services...

Como

My CRM 2013 instance is down, how can i use CRM service and its records? – Forsaken

Answer 2

It is not possible to reconstruct a complete audit history from the AuditBase tables alone. For the current values you still need the tables that are being audited.

The queries you would need to construct are complex and writing them may be avoided in case the RetrieveRecordChangeHistoryRequest is a suitable option as well. (See also How to get audit record details using FetchXML on SO.)

NOTE

This answer was submitted before the original question was extended stating that the RetrieveRecordChangeHistoryRequest cannot be used.

Decalcify

I agree with Henk that you may be better off using RetrieveRecordChangeRequest to denormalize the AuditBase info and then push the results of that over to SQL (if necessary). What is the ultimate goal of this project? Either way, if you're looking at using the .NET approach, you may find this MSDN sample helpful: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg309735(v=crm.8).aspx – Allhallowmas

Answer 3

As I said in comments, Audit table will have old value & new value, but not current value. Current value will be pushed as new value when next update happens.

In your OP query, ab.AttributeMask will return comma "," separated values and AB.changeData will return tilde "~" separated values. Read more

I assume you are fine with "~" separated values as Old Value column, want to show current values of fields in New Value column. This is not going to work when multiple fields are enabled for audit. You have to split the Attribute mask field value into CRM fields from AttributeView using ColumnNumber & get the required result.

I would recommend the below reference blog to start with, once you get the expected result, you can pull the current field value using extra query either in SQL or using C# in front end. But you should concatenate again with "~" for values to maintain the format.

https://marcuscrast.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/dynamics-crm-2011-audit-report-in-ssrs/

Update:
From the above blog, you can tweak the SP query with your fields, then convert the last select statement to 'select into' to create a new table for your storage.

Modify the Stored procedure to fetch the delta based on last run. Configure the sql job & schedule to run every day or so, to populate the table.

Then select & display the data as the way you want. I did the same in PowerBI under 3 days.

Pros/Cons: Obviously this requirement is for reporting purpose. Globally reporting requirements will be mirroring database by replication or other means and won't be interrupting Prod users & Async server by injecting plugins or any On demand Adhoc service calls. Moreover you have access to database & not CRM online. Better not to reinvent the wheel & take forward the available solution. This is my humble opinion & based on a Microsoft internal project implementation.

Delate