OnBase Support

What Are OnBase Transaction Logs?

To access the transaction log in OnBase, select the Admin tab >> Transaction Logs.  From here you will have the option to Create a Report, View all Messages, or Purge Messages.

The OnBase transaction log keeps a record of all events associated with the OnBase database.  This includes retrievals, the addition or update of keywords, DIP, COLD, and other processes.  The transaction log also allows users to view a document’s history.

The transaction log can become extremely large; sometimes as much as twenty-five percent of the total database. 

The OnBase Administrator and affected business process owners should first determine the necessity of viewing the document histories.  If it is deemed that the document histories past a certain amount of time (for example, 90 days) are no longer needed, the OnBase transaction log should be purged from that date back.

Purging the OnBase Transaction Log

Note of caution: Purging the OnBase transaction log is a destructive event and will no longer allow for the viewing of document histories within the purged date range. 

You can purge by specific log types as well as date ranges.  If you do decide to purge your transaction log, the transaction log data is stored in OnBase in the system document purge report – SYS Transaction Logs document type.  This report lists all transactions purged via the Transaction Log and the benefit of this is because it is a text file, you can do a text search for some of the basic transaction information you are looking for within a time frame. 

There are two things to keep in mind though. 

First, you can find the purged data information on the SYS Transaction Log Report but the information will no longer be accessible via the history of the document itself. 

Second, the SYS Transaction Log Report may contain sensitive data that had been stored in keywords, so access to the report should be restricted appropriately.