Including applying information rights management policies on download, tracking and auditing, and logging of all actions on sites, content, and workflows

Activating Auditing in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Activating Auditing Programmatically for a Single Document Library in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
Built-in Auditing Support in Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server 2007
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 introduces built-in audit logging you can enable and configure at the scope of a site collection. When you enable auditing, Windows SharePoint Services writes audit event entries into an internal audit log table that is stored within the content database. The audit event entries for a site collection are stored with all other Windows SharePoint Services content such as list items, documents, and Web Part customizations. When you back up a site collection, any information in the audit log is also backed up.

While Windows SharePoint Services provides the basic mechanisms for auditing, it does not provide any built-in support for users to enable auditing. Because Windows SharePoint Services does not provide the functionality to see entries that are written to the audit log, a developer must write code to enable the Windows SharePoint Services audit logging facility. A developer must also supply code and a user interface to read entries from the audit log and display this data to the site’s users. The sample code that accompanies this article shows how to create this type of custom auditing solution.

While Windows SharePoint Services provides the basic auditing mechanisms, Office SharePoint Server 2007 adds value by supplying an administrative user interface that allows auditing at the site collection level. Office SharePoint Server 2007 goes even further and enables auditing at the list or document library level, and control over what types of events should be recorded in the audit log. Office SharePoint Server 2007 also provides a reporting function that uses Microsoft Office Excel workbooks to display and keep records of audit logs. Therefore, Office SharePoint Server 2007 enables you to take advantage of the Windows SharePoint Services auditing support without having to write any custom code.