T80-2021 Comments properties only retain the ten the most recent comments and should not be Multi-Edited

Program

BIOVIA CISPro

Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (64-bit) and 2019

Background

In an out-of-the-box (OOTB) BIOVIA CISPro configuration, only the ten most recent comments added to any given comments property are retained. Any comments beyond the ten most recent are permanently removed and cannot be retrieved unless the property has been previously configured to be tracked at the audit level.

The Multi-Edit function allows the modification of a comments property on multiple nodes at the same time. However, when multiple nodes are selected, the comments history of the first selected node is copied to all subsequent nodes. Therefore any previously existing comments history from the subsequent nodes will be overwritten. This data is also permanently removed and cannot be retrieved unless the property has been previously configured to be audited.

Resolution

1. Every comments property has the ability to be audited (included in the audit history). It is highly recommended that you enable Plain Audit on all comments properties. Note that this action can only be done by BIOVIA Support and Services.

*Note: CISPro Development is planning to enable the audit for all OOTB comments properties for the CISPro 2022 release.

2. The 'total_comments_lines' configuration variable controls the number of comments saved. By default this variable is set to 10. This means that once a comment field on a single entity (node) passes ten comments, the eleventh will be saved while the oldest comment is removed. Enabling the audit ensures that even if comments are removed from the comment field, they are still available in the audit trail, however, for ease of use and visibility, it is also recommended to review and increase the default 'total_comments_lines' value.

*Note: CISPro Development is planning to increase the default value of the 'total_comments_lines' variable for new installations.

3. Do not use Multi-Edit on comments property types. The purpose of comments is to append a new comment record to the comments history while retaining the time-stamped previous comments. Multi-Edit however will remove the comments history and replace it with the history from the first node selected for the Multi-Edit.

How to contact BIOVIA Support

If you have any questions, please contact BIOVIA Support.