Although I will focus on the use of online transaction logs, it’s just as easy to add references to previously taken backups of the log or detached log. For illustration purposes let’s add a backed up log.
The common Windows File Dialog pops up, you point it to the physical backup file, click finish, and you’re done.
No matter which log type you’ve selected, after clicking on the Finish button, you are introduced to the „Log Filter“ dialog, which is a quite central part of the software, so I will take the time to explain it a bit more detailed.
As you can see, you are able to create new views, edit or open already existing filter views. The ability to create and use different filter views is actually a very powerful feature of the software. You are able to create a specific filtering view for a much narrowed down purpose, such as a view filtering on a specific application name, host name, or even user ID.
In this dialog you specify, on what information a log should be filtered for when it is accessed. The filtering options include:
- The basic Operation type, such as INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE
- Transaction Table Names
- Time Range of when the transaction occurred
- User ID associated with the operation
- Application Name associated with the operation
- Client Host Name associated with the operation
- Field Values
- Descriptions
- SPID
