How to check edits (by an editor) before they are applied to a table?

[Edward_Grenzig]

How can I check the edits that an editor has made to a table, before the edits are actually applied to the table, as a security measure?

I need to have two to three people remotely work on the edits and updates to a table containing about 700 records. I am concerned that they could easily change some data in error, and I would like to be able to review there edits, before I actually approve the edits, to change the data permanently in the table. Is this possible in Airtable, or with some add on block? Maybe someone has an idea or suggestion? This seems like a common concern?

[ScottWorld]

Airtable has a built-in Activity Log that meticulously keeps track of every single change made to a record. It shows you both the before & after changes, along with who made the changes & when they made the changes. Just expand one of your records and open up the activity log on the right. It’s a pretty amazing & brilliant feature that most database platforms don’t have. You can learn more about it here:

Airtable - Support

Record-level revision history overview

Record-level revision history is an overview of the changes made to each record over time. You can see the record-level revision history inside each record's activity feed when a record is expanded...

[Edward_Grenzig]

Scott
The activity log is very interesting, thanks for the info!

but it seems like the edits have already been applied and it doesn’t allow me to rollback to a previous state before the edits. I am also not sure how this will allow me to find the records that were actually edited, when the total records is about 700 and edits maybe on around 10 to 50 records?

[ScottWorld]

You can’t stop an edit from being made, unless you create your own system for that using other tools, such as external forms and external automation routines.

Regarding seeing the most recent edits, just add a Last Modified Time Field to your base, and sort by that field.

[Edward_Grenzig]

Thanks! I should have seen that Last Modified Time field!
I am kind of new using AT so I am still feeling my way around.

It would be nice if I found someone who already solved this issue with a form or external automation routine.

[ScottWorld]

You could also just have them do their edits in another table, and then you could figure out some way to bring over their edits to the existing table. Again, you would need to create your own solution for this.

[Edward_Grenzig]

I was working on that idea before I made this post. Then I thought that possibly someone out there has an easy solution, so I posted it.

Maybe the easy fast solution does not exist, and I will go back to investigating using the second duplicate table idea? Thanks!

[Chris_Birk]

Were you able to come up with a solution? I would be very interested in hearing how you solved this problem!

[Edward_Grenzig]

Chris
Sorry to say that I never came up with a solution since the amount of time necessary to solve this problem, was way too much when compared to the number of edits needed to be done on a weekly basis. I ended up doing most of the edits myself.

[Bbb_Shell]

I have something similar to this, although mine is more of letting other users Add banned persons into the Banned List through a Form, and they all go to a separate table Pending Approval Table where I can review if they should be added or not. If I approve, I mark the Approved checkbox of that entry then it’s added to my Banned Table using automations. I also use the “unchecked checkbox” filter to see only pending entries, and have an automation set up to email me when a user has requested to Add a banned person to the list.

I think for your scenario, you could somehow apply the same. A separate table (Edit Pending Approval table) to see what records have been edited. Add a button in your main table to “Edit” the entry where a form will pop up, enter only the details that need changing, then when submitted, it will add to the Edit Pending Approval table, where you can now review them before you let automations update your main table with the changes.