Entity History | Yext Hitchhikers Platform
Overview
Entity History grants users an extensive view of the historical updates made to entities. This reference details the types of events recorded in the entity history.
Entity History can be accessed by navigating to Content > Configuration > Entity History in Yext, or via the Logs API.
Entity History UI
The entity history UI offers a tabular view of entity updates in the Yext platform. Each row corresponds to a single update, or event, on a given entity.
By default, updates are listed in descending chronological order. Update details can be viewed by clicking the View button on a given row.
Default Columns
These columns appear as part of the default view on the Entity History page:
| Column Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Timestamp | The timestamp of the update. This column is sortable. |
| Operation ID | Unique identifier for the operation responsible for the update (includes bulk updates). A single operation can contain multiple events. For example, if a user updates a field on an entity with three language profiles, this will appear in entity history as three separate rows (one for each language profile that was edited), but all three rows will have the same Operation ID (since they were executed in the same action). |
| Entity | The entity that the event pertains to. This column displays a preview with an icon, name, and entity ID. |
| Event Type | The type of update that took place. Event type descriptions can be found in the table below. |
| Profile Language | The language profile that the update was made on. |
| Field | The field that was updated (if applicable). |
| Value (Rendered) | Represents the value present on the entity profile after inherited values have been resolved. If an embedded field is included, the embedded field’s value will appear. |
| Actor | The actor responsible for the event. Can be one of the following: |
Additional Columns
These columns can be added to the Entity History table by selecting them from the Columns dropdown. Click Reset Columns to restore the default view.
| Column Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Value (Raw) | Value representing how the field data is stored in Yext Content. If an embedded field is included, the embedded field will appear in its unprocessed form (field name within double brackets). |
| Primary Profile | Boolean. Indicates whether the profile is the primary profile for the entity. |
| Profile ID | Unique identifier for the entity profile that was updated. Profile IDs vary between an entity’s primary profile and its alternate language profiles. |
| Actor Details | Description attributing the update to a specific actor and the interface through which the update was made. |
Events
These are the types of events that can take place on entities, and how they appear in the entity history.
| Event Type | Description |
|---|---|
| ENTITY_CREATED | The entity was created |
| PROFILE_CREATED | A language profile was created for the entity |
| FIELD_UPDATED | A field value was updated on the entity profile |
| FIELD_UPDATED_INHERITED | The rendered value for a field was updated due to an update to the inherited field’s value. The raw value for the inheriting field was not updated. Updates that result in this event include: field value updates on an entity’s primary language profile carrying over to its alternate language profiles; source field value for an embedded field being updated |
| PROFILE_HIERARCHY_UPDATED | The primary language profile on an entity was changed from one profile to another |
| PROFILE_DELETED | A language profile was deleted |
| ENTITY_DELETED | The entire entity was deleted |
Entity History in the Logs API
Entity History can be accessed by querying the entityHistory table in the POST Query endpoint of the Logs API. Before doing this, you will need to configure an App in the Developer Console and set the Logs endpoint permissions to Read-Only.
For steps to create an App in the Developer Console, follow the steps in the Create an App in the Developer Console guide.
For details on a sample request and payload, and a sample response, visit the Logs API documentation.
Logs API vs UI
| Stipulation | Entity History via Logs API | Entity History UI |
|---|---|---|
| Requires Developer App | Yes | No |
| Includes Update Metadata (Event Type, Timestamp, Value (Rendered), etc.) | Yes | Yes |
| Filterable | Yes | Yes (limited) |
| Sortable by Timestamp | Yes | Yes |
| View Previous Content for a Given Update | No | Yes |
| Restore Field Values | No | Yes |
| Returns Entity UID (Yext ID) | Yes | No |
| Maximum Page Size (total records returned per request/page) | 1,000 | 100 |
Restore Field Updates
One of the major advantages of the Entity History UI over the Logs API is the ability to restore existing field values to their previous values for Field Updated events. There are three user actions that can initiate a field value restoration.
For details on how to restore field updates, visit the Roll Back Entities guide.
Note that the system may be unable to restore changes for a variety of reasons. If the system is unable to apply the changes, an error message will appear. Some reasons for an error include:
- Attempting to restore changes for any non-Field Updated events.
- Attempting to restore multiple changes on the same field for the same entity.
- Attempting to restore changes for an entity whose ID shows “Value Pending.”
Entity History Limitations
Global
- Entity History is limited to the last three years (1,095 days), beyond which Entity History is deleted.
- Newly created entities will appear in the Entity History UI with an undefined entity type and an “ID: Value Pending.” It may take up to 1 hour for these values to sync. Changes cannot be restored for field updated events until these values are resolved.
- It may take up to 5 minutes for new update logs to appear in the Entity History tables accessed via the UI and Logs API.
- Users cannot restore data on the following fields: Country Code, Coordinates (Display, Dropoff, Pickup, Routable, Walkable), or any image fields.
UI
- Field Updated (Inherited) events cannot be restored.
- Changes to the Locale field cannot be restored, as they differ from standard field value updates.
- Limited filtering capability compared to Entity History in the Logs API.
- The ability to export logs is not currently supported.
Logs API
- Cannot restore changes for Field Updated events