Oracle APEX – The Standard Component Attributes Anatomy Series: Audit Information

Audit Information

The Audit section captures key metadata about each component in your APEX application. Specifically, it records:

• Changed By: The username of the last developer who modified the component.

• Changed On: The timestamp of the last modification.

This information is automatically tracked by APEX and displayed as read-only fields within Page Designer and other areas of the Application Builder. Like most metadata in APEX, these audit details are also available through the APEX dictionary views.

When exporting an application, you can choose whether or not to include audit metadata. This is especially important if you're using version control:

• Excluding audit info can reduce noise in version diffs, making it easier to track real functional changes.

• Including audit info might be useful in simpler setups to retain a lightweight, built-in form of change tracking.

You can configure this in the Export Application dialog under the "Include Audit Information" section. Options include:

• None (default) – No audit information is exported.

• Dates Only – Only timestamps (Created On, Changed On) are included.

• Names and Dates – Both usernames and timestamps (Created By, Changed By, etc.) are included.

This setting lets you strike the right balance between traceability and clean version control depending on your development workflow.

Enjoy life!