--- a/src/main/java/org/mpi/openmind/repository/bo/Entity.java	Thu Aug 25 11:29:47 2016 +0200
+++ b/src/main/java/org/mpi/openmind/repository/bo/Entity.java	Fri Aug 26 11:42:41 2016 +0200
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 package org.mpi.openmind.repository.bo;
 
 import java.io.Serializable;
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 
 import javax.persistence.DiscriminatorValue;
 import javax.persistence.Transient;
 
+import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;
 import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
 import org.hibernate.annotations.Cache;
@@ -783,6 +785,9 @@
         }
     }
     
+    /**
+     * Sets the ID of the entity and its attributes and relations to null.
+     */
     public void resetId() {
         this.setId(null);
         for (Attribute att : this.attributes) {
@@ -921,6 +926,9 @@
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Set the system_status of this Entity and its attributes and relations.
+     */
     @Override
     public void setSystemStatus(String status) {
         super.setSystemStatus(status);
@@ -977,6 +985,32 @@
                 ", type=" + this.getType() + " att.size=" + this.attributes.size() + "]";
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Returns a String representation with base64-encoded own-value.
+     * 
+     * To be used for the transaction log.
+     * 
+     * @return
+     */
+    public String toEncString() {
+        try {
+            String es = "ENTITY["
+            + "id=\"" + this.getId() + "\", "
+            + "row-id=\"" + this.getRowId() + "\", "
+            + "object-class=\"" + this.getObjectClass() + "\", "
+            + "mtime=\"" + this.getModificationTime() + "\", "
+            + "version=\"" + this.getVersion() + "\", "
+            + "user=\"" + this.getUser() + "\", "
+            + "public=\"" + this.getIsPublic() + "\", "
+            + "b64-value=\"" + ((this.getOwnValue() != null) ? Base64.encodeBase64String(this.getOwnValue().getBytes("UTF-8")) : "") + "\"]";
+            return es;
+        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
+            // this shouldn't happen
+            e.printStackTrace();
+        }
+        return "!!!ENCODING-ERROR!!!";
+    }
+
     public String getShortString(){
     	return "[" + this.getId() + "] " + this.getOwnValue();
     }