diff --git a/app/src/api/services/__tests__/editHistory.test.ts b/app/src/api/services/__tests__/editHistory.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5db92f5b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/src/api/services/__tests__/editHistory.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+import { mocked } from 'ts-jest/utils';
+
+import { EditHistoryEntry } from '../../../frontend/models/edit-history-entry';
+import * as editHistoryData from '../../dataAccess/editHistory'; // manually mocked
+import { getGlobalEditHistory } from '../editHistory';
+
+jest.mock('../../dataAccess/editHistory');
+
+const mockedEditHistoryData = editHistoryData as typeof import('../../dataAccess/__mocks__/editHistory');
+
+describe('getGlobalEditHistory()', () => {
+    mockedEditHistoryData.__setHistory(
+        [...Array(20).keys()].map<EditHistoryEntry>(i => ({
+            revision_id: (100 + i) + '',
+            revision_timestamp: new Date(2019, 10, 1, 17, 20 + i).toISOString(),
+            username: 'testuser',
+            building_id: 1234567,
+            forward_patch: {},
+            reverse_patch: {}
+        }))
+    );
+
+    describe('without before/after parameters', () => {
+        it.each(
+            [
+                [0, []],
+                [3, ['119', '118', '117']],
+                [6, ['119', '118', '117', '116', '115', '114']]
+            ]
+        )('should return the N latest records in descending order', async (count: number, ids: string[]) => {
+            const historyResult = await getGlobalEditHistory(null, null, count);
+
+            expect(historyResult.history.map(h => h.revision_id)).toEqual(ids);
+        });
+    });
+
+    describe('with after ID parameter', () => {
+    });
+
+    describe('with before ID parameter', () => {
+
+    });
+});
diff --git a/app/src/api/services/editHistory.ts b/app/src/api/services/editHistory.ts
index e0891621..33c00698 100644
--- a/app/src/api/services/editHistory.ts
+++ b/app/src/api/services/editHistory.ts
@@ -1,20 +1,28 @@
-import db from '../../db';
+import { EditHistoryEntry } from '../../frontend/models/edit-history-entry';
+import { getHistoryAfterId, getHistoryBeforeId, getIdNewerThan, getIdOlderThan, getLatestHistory } from '../dataAccess/editHistory';
 
-async function getGlobalEditHistory() {
-    try {
-        return await db.manyOrNone(
-            `SELECT log_id as revision_id, forward_patch, reverse_patch, date_trunc('minute', log_timestamp) as revision_timestamp, username, building_id
-            FROM logs, users
-            WHERE logs.user_id = users.user_id
-                AND log_timestamp >= now() - interval '7 days'
-            ORDER BY log_timestamp DESC`
-        );
-    } catch (error) {
-        console.error(error);
-        return [];
+async function getGlobalEditHistory(beforeId?: string, afterId?: string, count: number = 100) {
+    // limited set of records. Expected to be already ordered from newest to oldest
+    let editHistoryRecords: EditHistoryEntry[];
+
+    if(afterId != undefined) {
+        editHistoryRecords = await getHistoryAfterId(afterId, count);
+    } else if (beforeId != undefined) {
+        editHistoryRecords = await getHistoryBeforeId(beforeId, count);
+    } else {
+        editHistoryRecords = await getLatestHistory(count);
     }
-}
 
+    const newer = getIdNewerThan(editHistoryRecords[0]?.revision_id);
+    const older = getIdOlderThan(editHistoryRecords[editHistoryRecords.length-1]?.revision_id);
+    return {
+        history: editHistoryRecords,
+        paging: {
+            has_newer: newer != undefined,
+            has_older: older != undefined
+        }
+    };
+}
 
 export {
     getGlobalEditHistory