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Show who created or changed a record

Goal​

Show who created a record and when, and who last changed it and when — on a form, in a view, or both — and, more generally, point a lookup field at the platform's Users table.

What you get for free​

Every table the platform manages carries four system fields you do not have to create:

  • Created On and Modified On — the date and time the record was created and last changed.
  • Created By and Modified By — the user who created it and the user who last changed it, shown by name.

The platform sets all four; you cannot edit them, and they are never blank once a record has been saved. They appear at the bottom of the field list in the Form Designer and the View Designer, under your own fields, ready to drag onto a form or add as a column.

Steps — show them on a view​

  1. Open the table's Views tab and open (or create) a view in the View Designer.
  2. In Available fields, find Created On, Created By, Modified On, or Modified By — they sit after your own fields.
  3. Drag the ones you want onto the grid header, in the order you want them.
  4. Optionally select a column and set a date format for Created On / Modified On.
  5. Select Save.

The view now shows the stamps. Created By and Modified By display the user's name, not an internal id.

Steps — show them on a form​

  1. Open the table's Forms tab and open a form in the Form Designer.
  2. Drag the system fields from the palette into a section — a small "Audit" section at the bottom of the form is the usual place.
  3. Select Save.

On the form they render read-only: the platform owns them, so there is nothing to type.

Making a lookup to a user​

Because the platform keeps a Users table in every environment, you can point an ordinary Lookup field at it — for an "Assigned To", an "Approved By", or any other person on a record you set yourself (as opposed to the automatic Created By / Modified By):

  1. On the table's Fields, add a field with data type Lookup.
  2. For Related table, choose Users.
  3. Save.

The field then picks a user by name, the same as any other lookup.

What happens behind the scenes​

The Users table fills itself in: whenever someone creates or changes a record, the platform records that person in the environment's Users table from the details already in their sign-in — so Created By resolves to a name without any setup, and the table grows as people use the environment. Someone who has not yet touched any record in this environment will not appear in a Users lookup until they do.

The four system fields are not stored columns you manage — they are provided on every table, so they never take up space in your solution and need no setup at all.

Troubleshooting​

  • Created By shows an id, not a name. — that user has not been recorded in this environment's Users table yet (they created the record in an older environment, or the record was imported). It resolves to a name the next time they act in this environment.
  • I can't find the system fields in the palette. — they are at the end of the Available fields list, after your own fields; scroll down.
  • Users is missing from the Related table list. — the environment predates the Users table. Re-seeding the environment's default tables adds it.