Audit logs to enforce document integrity in Skyline and Panorama

Abstract

Skyline is a Windows application for targeted mass spectrometry method creation and quantitative data analysis. Like most graphical user interface (GUI) tools, it has a complex user interface with many ways for users to edit their files which makes the task of logging user actions challenging and is the reason why audit logging of every change is not common in GUI tools. We present an object comparison-based approach to audit logging for Skyline that is extensible to other GUI tools. The new audit logging system keeps track of all document modifications made through the GUI or the command line and displays them in an interactive grid. The audit log can also be uploaded and viewed in Panorama, a web repository for Skyline documents that can be configured to only accept documents with a valid audit log, based on embedded hashes to protect log integrity. This makes workflows involving Skyline and Panorama more reproducible. Availability and implementation: Skyline is freely available at https://skyline.ms.