Showing changes to an Entity (record) object

The following example illustrates how to use the DevOps Plan Schema API to get information about field values before and after the user has updated a record. This example is structured as a global hook that can be called from any other hook, such as from the ACTION_COMMIT hook.

Perl

# Start of Global Script ShowOldNewValues

# ShowOldNewValues: Show field values in the current 
# record, drawing attention to fields whose values have changed 
# during the current action.

sub ShowOldNewValues {

   # $actionname as string

   # $hookname as string

   my($actionname, $hookname) = @_;

   my($M) = "'".$actionname."' action's ".$hookname." script (Perl 
      version):\n\n";

   # Get a list of the fields in this record type

   # (NOTE: GetFieldNames() returns a *REFERENCE* to an array)...

   my($FieldNamesRef) = $entity->GetFieldNames();



   # Loop through the fields, showing name, type, old/new value...

   foreach $FN (@$FieldNamesRef) {

      $M .= $FN . ":"; # Show the field name...



      # Get the field's original value...

      $FieldInfo = $entity->GetFieldOriginalValue($FN);

      $FieldValueStatus = $FieldInfo->GetValueStatus();

      if ($FieldValueStatus == $CQPerlExt::CQ_HAS_NO_VALUE) {

         $OldFV = "<no value>";

      } elsif ($FieldValueStatus == 
                        $CQPerlExt::CQ_VALUE_NOT_AVAILABLE) {

         $OldFV = "<value not available>";

      } elsif ($FieldValueStatus == $CQPerlExt::CQ_HAS_VALUE) {

         $OldFV = $FieldInfo->GetValue();

      } else {

         $OldFV = "<Invalid value status: 
                  " . $FieldValueStatus . ">";

      }



      # Get the current value (may have been updated during this
      # action)...

      $FieldInfo = $entity->GetFieldValue($FN);

      $FieldValueStatus = $FieldInfo->GetValueStatus();

      if ($FieldValueStatus == $CQPerlExt::CQ_HAS_NO_VALUE) {

         $NewFV = "<no value>";

      } elsif ($FieldValueStatus ==
                $CQPerlExt::CQ_VALUE_NOT_AVAILABLE) {

         $NewFV = "<value not available>";

      } elsif ($FieldValueStatus == $CQPerlExt::CQ_HAS_VALUE) {

         $NewFV = $FieldInfo->GetValue();

      } else {

         $NewFV = "<Invalid value status: 
               " . $FieldValueStatus .  ">";

      }



      # Get and reformat the field's type...

      $FieldType = $FieldInfo->GetType();

      $is_short = 1;

      if ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_SHORT_STRING) {

         $FieldType = "Short String";

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_MULTILINE_STRING) {

         $FieldType = "Multiline String";

         $is_short = 0;

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_INT) {

         $FieldType = "Integer";

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_DATE_TIME) {

         $FieldType = "Date Time";

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_REFERENCE) {

         $FieldType = "Reference";

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_REFERENCE_LIST) {

         $FieldType = "Reference List";

         $is_short = 0;

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_ATTACHMENT_LIST) {

         $FieldType = "Attachment List";

         $is_short = 0;

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_ID) {

         $FieldType = "ID";

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_STATE) {

         $FieldType = "State";

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_JOURNAL) {

         $FieldType = "Journal";

         $is_short = 0;

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_DBID) {

         $FieldType = "DBID";

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_STATETYPE) {

         $FieldType = "STATETYPE";

      } elsif ($FieldType == $CQPerlExt::CQ_RECORDTYPE) {

         $FieldType = "RECORDTYPE";

      } else {

         $FieldType = "<UNKNOWN TYPE: " . $FieldType . ">";

         $is_short = 0;

      }

      $M .= " Type=" . $FieldType . ".";



      # Display the results. For the purposes of this example, we
      # show values as follows:

      # 1. Identify whether the field's value has changed or not
      #     during the current action and indicate that in the
      #     output.

      # 2. For single-line fields (integer, short_string, etc.)
      #    show the field's value.

      # 3. For single-line fields whose values have changed during
      #    the current action, show the old and the new values.


      if ($OldFV eq $NewFV) {

         $M .= " Value is unchanged.";

         if ($is_short) {

            $M .= "  Value='".$OldFV."'";

         }

      } else {

         $M .= " Value has changed.";

         if ($is_short) {

            $M .= " Old value='".$OldFV."' New
               value='".$NewFV."'";

         }

      }

      $M .= "\n";

   }

   $M .= "\n'".$actionname."' action's notification script
          (Perl version) exiting.\n";



   # At this point you could write this information to a file,
   # present it in a message box, or write it to the debug window
   # using $session->OutputDebugString().

   # Here is called a subroutine 'DBGOUT' which writes the message
   # out to a file and invokes 'Notepad' on it...

   DBGOUT($M);

}

# End of Global Script ShowOldNewValues



# Start of Global Script DBGOUT

sub DBGOUT {

   my($Msg) = shift;

   my($FN) = $ENV{'TEMP'}.'\STDOUT.txt';

   open(DBG, ">>$FN") || die "Failed to open $FN";

   print DBG ($Msg);

   close(DBG);

   system("notepad $FN");

   system("del $FN");

}

# End of Global Script DBGOUT