# OMERO events and provenance

## What is an event?

As described under OmeroContext, each method call takes place within a single application context (always the same), session, and event. Of these, only event is guaranteed to be unique for every task*. The https://github.com/ome/omero-server/blob/v5.7.4/src/main/java/ome/security/basic/EventHandler.java is responsible for creating new events.

## Events as audit log

On each Database-update (INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE), an `EventLog` is created by a `HibernateInterceptor` which is then saved to the database at the end of the method call (in `UpdateImpl`).

## Relationship to ModuleExecutions

The OMERO Event plays a similar role to the `ModuleExecution` in the OME 2 system. They both contain time of create/update/deletion, status, and type information. Event, however, has lost its ACL/permissions role. These values have been moved to embedded values represented by the Details object. Event also is not linked to all the created `SemanticTypes` as was `ModuleExecution`, and so cannot fully represent the provenance data needed by the `AnalysisEngine`. At such time as the `AnalysisEngine` is ported to Java, the `ModuleExecution` object will have to be added.

* Here we say “task” and not method call, because all method calls to a single stateful service instance belong to the same event. This is the nature of a stateful service. Logically, however, it is a single action.

See also

Hibernate events