Overview

Re-assigning or re-using existing UserID will update all activity stream with the new user name.

Behavior in Activity Stream when User ID and Name are updated

sys_created_by depends on user_id field.

Scenario 1: User ID is updated. (UserID is a String).
Use case: User ID is linked to the same user, but the ID is updated.

The existing activity stream/records will not be updated with new User ID. Because there's no reference to sys_user. The system looks for user ID with which the records/activities were created. If there's no matching username for that userID, it displays the user ID itself (irrespective of whether the user ID exists in the sys_user table or not). All new updates will be logged under the new userID and username combination.

Example:
User ID: abel.tuter
Name: Abel Tuter

See the images where Scenario 1 is applied.

User Abel Tuter (abel.tuter) created an incident record.

User ID is updated to abel.tuterNew. Name of the user is unchanged.

 

New work notes has been posted by Abel Tuter (abel.tuterNew). See the old worknotes on the incident form. It shows old user ID (abel.tuter doesn't exist in the user table/platform). Since there is no matching user record for abel.tuter, it is displaying User ID itself. All new work notes will be logged by abel.tuterNew and displays the name Abel Tuter.

 

Scenario 2: Username is updated. (Username is also a String).
Use case: If existing User ID is given to a different user (or) User ID is unchanged, new user is linked to the User ID.

The existing activity stream records will be updated to the new username. This is because, platform verifies if the userID is valid, and looks for the username associated to the user ID and then displays it on the form.

Example:
User ID: abel.tuter
Name: Abel Tuter

 

User Abel Tuter (abel.tuter) created an incident record.

 

Giving the above User ID (abel.tuter) to a different user.
Name: Beth Anglin

 

New work notes has been posted by Beth Anglin (User ID: abel.tuter). Observe that name in the activity stream is updated to new name since the user ID 'abel.tuter' is associated with Beth Anglin.

 

This is the expected functionality since sys_created_by field is not a reference type. Activity Stream displays name associated with the User ID and doesn't validate if the User ID is associated to a new user.

The existing functionality doesn't allow to preserve old user names in activity stream once the user ID is associated with a different user.
We highly recommend NOT to re-use User IDs. (This also includes associating User ID with a different user record or exchanging User IDs between users).