A “changeset” in Fulcrum is a batch of edits to records (creates, updates, or deletes) that are grouped as a single activity within your Fulcrum account. For example, if a mobile user is in the field and creates 3 new records and edits 5 existing records when that user syncs their device, Fulcrum will store that batch of edits as a changeset containing 8 activities (3 creates, 5 edits).

Changesets can be helpful for troubleshooting activity over time from your field staff. They’re also used in several ways within the Fulcrum web interface for data management (e.g. the activity feed view).

When you select this option during the export process, you’ll see a couple of differences in the resulting data. For one, your data table will include a new column called changeset_id which is used to identify in which changeset that record was most recently touched. You’ll also get an additional file with the name APPNAME_changesets, containing metadata for each changeset activity logged. There’s a wealth of metadata contained here, and it can be extremely useful for finding out more about how your users are using Fulcrum, and for tracking down more info on what was being done in the field and when. Here are the columns contained in the changesets table: