Setting up the ‘Append last edited by’ automation

[Discourse]

This guide explains how to set up an automation that appends a ‘last edited by’ note to specific topics, showing when they were last modified and by whom.

Required user level: Administrator

The ‘Append last edited by’ automation is a useful tool for adding transparency to your documentation or policy topics. It automatically adds a note showing the last time a topic was edited and who made the changes. This feature uses local dates functionality, allowing users to see the edited date in their own timezone.

Here’s an example of how the ‘last edited by’ note appears:

This topic (and all of the official documentation topics) use this automation, so you will see the result of it at the bottom of this post.

Setting up the automation

To set up this automation, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your site’s Automation page
2. Select the ‘Append last edited by’ script
3. Configure the options as shown in the image below:
   
   

Configuration options

The automation offers the following configuration options:

• Trigger: The only available trigger is ‘After post cook’
• Category: Select a single category where you want this automation to apply
• Tags: Enter any tags you want the automation to apply to (optional)
• Trust Level: Set the minimum trust level for users whose topics will be eligible for the note

Note that you can only select one category per automation. If you need to apply this to multiple categories, you’ll need to create separate automations for each category.

How it works

Once set up, the automation will:

1. Apply to all topics in the selected category (or with the specified tags)
2. Only affect topics created by users at or above the set trust level
3. Append the ‘last edited by’ note to eligible topics
4. Update the note whenever the topic is edited

Here’s an example of how the note appears in a topic:

Additional information

This automation works well in conjunction with the ‘Last checked by’ automation, which provides additional review information. You can find more details about the ‘Last checked by’ automation in this guide.

Last edited by @hugh 2024-07-26T01:59:02Z

Last checked by @hugh 2024-07-26T01:59:06Z

Check document

Perform check on document:

[patrickemin]

Hi, it seems I can select only one category, correct ?

[Firepup650 (Firepup Sixfifty)]

Seems like that wouldn’t be the intention:

@JammyDodger

There is also a handy way to add a category + all of its subcategories

@JammyDodger

no need to laboriously select them all individually

[patrickemin]

Yes, but I mean no way to add several categories that are not sub categories?

[Firepup650 (Firepup Sixfifty)]

From the fact that Jammy mentioned selecting them individually, I think you would be able to select multiple categories.

Also:

@JammyDodger

enter the categories and/or tags

[patrickemin]

That’s right but I couldn’t.

[JammyDodger]

Yes, it doesn’t seem like you can have multiple categories at this time. The magic subcategory trick also doesn’t seem to be working for me now either.

Let me check to see if anything has changed (or if I just made a mistake with the guide…)

Looking at the screenshot, it isn’t actually showing the magic subcategory trick, so I think I may have made a booboo.

---

I can confirm, this will only work with one category per automation, so for multiple categories (including subcategories) you would need an automation for each.

(I have updated the guides)

[Jagster (Jakke Lehtonen)]

It would be nice if we could use groups instead of trustlevels

[joo (slower)]

When activating this automation, the “Last edited by” content is automatically added to Calendar. I’m seeking advice on whether this is a bug or if it’s an issue with my settings. Could anyone help clarify?