Save date when transition ran in document infodoc

[dianabarsan]

What feature do you want to improve?
When a transition runs over a document, we store some metadata about this in the infodoc. It ends up looking like:

{
  "_id": "uuid-info",
  "type": "info",
  "doc_id": "uuid",
  "initial_replication_date": "2024-04-10T08:23:45.275Z",
  "latest_replication_date": "2024-04-10T08:23:45.275Z",
  "transitions": {
    "registration": {
      "last_rev": "1-471765b1ac3cdebe9bae8c3ae43a08c6",
      "seq": "68636-g1AAAAadeJy91D1OwzAYBmCLIiEhRgriCkiNkthp6wmuAK0P4L9QSmhRf1i5AgsLGwu0vgIDF2DtwsABegZa8zX2mKGK1EyfFCmfHvl97QwhdNSrKRTK4VT2lLj0sxEHN3yg-N1t42E0VMH4UQYym44nehRkQ8mzDP7c40jUGev2ezWB0Gl8D98OIoljzaMSKwsd0TaOjYKJc2PmnvKWU3BEcdKmJbYWUvBWFFAYcWHt2lHqvzmFpLjF26TE1vLpbBRWwMl0POU1p6RpSHnYqjYgUHRF35iZo5w0XFdwLGkUVxsQKObiydqVP5XnnBIKSkIiqw0IFOvBPrpm7MVhzg5zTKJxK8Wi0ojA0QEHjA9osI9p4mJKOGnqovLuLiZwzMAB48_aL8c5_sw5Qmusqao0KnCswAHjirGFb863u9oREbRZVOKdhgWlWcB4N2bpw0ocR8t2GuKqw4LSLGHAi2P96fy414aoRPFmic39fyUGPsU",
      "ok": true
    },
    "default_responses": {
      "last_rev": "1-471765b1ac3cdebe9bae8c3ae43a08c6",
      "seq": "68636-g1AAAAadeJy91D1OwzAYBmCLIiEhRgriCkiNkthp6wmuAK0P4L9QSmhRf1i5AgsLGwu0vgIDF2DtwsABegZa8zX2mKGK1EyfFCmfHvl97QwhdNSrKRTK4VT2lLj0sxEHN3yg-N1t42E0VMH4UQYym44nehRkQ8mzDP7c40jUGev2ezWB0Gl8D98OIoljzaMSKwsd0TaOjYKJc2PmnvKWU3BEcdKmJbYWUvBWFFAYcWHt2lHqvzmFpLjF26TE1vLpbBRWwMl0POU1p6RpSHnYqjYgUHRF35iZo5w0XFdwLGkUVxsQKObiydqVP5XnnBIKSkIiqw0IFOvBPrpm7MVhzg5zTKJxK8Wi0ojA0QEHjA9osI9p4mJKOGnqovLuLiZwzMAB48_aL8c5_sw5Qmusqao0KnCswAHjirGFb863u9oREbRZVOKdhgWlWcB4N2bpw0ocR8t2GuKqw4LSLGHAi2P96fy414aoRPFmic39fyUGPsU",
      "ok": true
    },
      "update_sent_by": {
      "last_rev": "1-471765b1ac3cdebe9bae8c3ae43a08c6",
      "seq": "68636-g1AAAAadeJy91D1OwzAYBmCLIiEhRgriCkiNkthp6wmuAK0P4L9QSmhRf1i5AgsLGwu0vgIDF2DtwsABegZa8zX2mKGK1EyfFCmfHvl97QwhdNSrKRTK4VT2lLj0sxEHN3yg-N1t42E0VMH4UQYym44nehRkQ8mzDP7c40jUGev2ezWB0Gl8D98OIoljzaMSKwsd0TaOjYKJc2PmnvKWU3BEcdKmJbYWUvBWFFAYcWHt2lHqvzmFpLjF26TE1vLpbBRWwMl0POU1p6RpSHnYqjYgUHRF35iZo5w0XFdwLGkUVxsQKObiydqVP5XnnBIKSkIiqw0IFOvBPrpm7MVhzg5zTKJxK8Wi0ojA0QEHjA9osI9p4mJKOGnqovLuLiZwzMAB48_aL8c5_sw5Qmusqao0KnCswAHjirGFb863u9oREbRZVOKdhgWlWcB4N2bpw0ocR8t2GuKqw4LSLGHAi2P96fy414aoRPFmic39fyUGPsU",
      "ok": false
    }
  }
}

The information that we store is:

• the transition name
• the rev of the document which it updated
• the sequence of the database (which is not super relevant)
• whether the transition was successful

Describe the improvement you'd like
While debugging an issue where a field, that was supposed to be added by a transition, was missing from a generated sms message, there was no way of knowing when the transition ran, specifically whether it ran before or after the SMS message had been generated.
I'm suggesting we add an additional field to infodoc transition entries to store the date when the transition edited the document.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Leave it as it is.

Additional context
Having this information would definitively exclude the delayed sentinel scenario as an explanation for issues like https://github.com/medic/config-gandaki/issues/38
related issue #9011

[dianabarsan]

@1yuv @binokaryg @garethbowen
I'd appreciate your opinions on this. The change is really simple and I already have a PR. I can't think of a reason not to add this, but deferring to you if you have objections or thoughts about formats and whatnot.
Thanks a lot!

[garethbowen]

Including the date seems like a no brainer! Maybe it could use a better name... "timestamp" isn't very descriptive. What about "execution_date" or something?

[1yuv]

Thanks @dianabarsan, I can't draw a picture how will this help with #9011 ? Will there be another PR that will re-run transition based on newly introduced timestamp? Do we capture this date field only once, or can be changed based on the result of ok and this date field? In that case I'd rename this to last_execution_date.

[dianabarsan]

Most transitions don't run more than once, @1yuv , the intention for this is to add more information into when the transition ran, to know for certain that it had run before or after another event (for example, before or after an SMS was generated).

[dianabarsan]

"execution_date"

Thanks for the feedback, I changed it to run_date.
I recently read a story about a shipwreck from the 18th century, and the word "execution" rings sadly to me.

[garethbowen]

I recently read a story about a shipwreck from the 18th century, and the word "execution" rings sadly to me.

Oof, yeah, run_date is good...