Logging model events | laravel-activitylog | Spatie

 SPATIE

  Laravel Activity Log
=======================

spatie.be/open-source

  [Docs](https://spatie.be/docs)  [Laravel-activitylog](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2)  Advanced-usage  Logging model events

 Version   v5   v4   v3   v2   v1

 Other versions for crawler [v5](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v5) [v4](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v4) [v3](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v3) [v2](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2) [v1](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v1)

- [ Introduction ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/introduction)
- [ Postcardware ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/postcardware)
- [ Requirements ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/requirements)
- [ Installation and Setup ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/installation-and-setup)
- [ Questions and issues ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/questions-and-issues)
- [ Changelog ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/changelog)
- [ About us ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/about-us)

Basic usage
-----------

- [ Logging activity ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/basic-usage/logging-activity)
- [ Cleaning up the log ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/basic-usage/cleaning-up-the-log)

Advanced usage
--------------

- [ Logging model events ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/advanced-usage/logging-model-events)
- [ Using placeholders ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/advanced-usage/using-placeholders)
- [ Using multiple logs ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/advanced-usage/using-multiple-logs)
- [ Disabling logging ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v2/advanced-usage/disabling-logging)

      You are viewing the documentation for **an older version** of this package. You can check the version you are using with the following command:

 `                                    composer show spatie/laravel-activitylog                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    `

Logging model events
====================

###  On this page

1. [ Customizing the events being logged ](#content-customizing-the-events-being-logged)
2. [ Customizing the description ](#content-customizing-the-description)
3. [ Customizing the log name ](#content-customizing-the-log-name)
4. [ Ignoring changes to certain attributes ](#content-ignoring-changes-to-certain-attributes)
5. [ Logging only the changed attributes ](#content-logging-only-the-changed-attributes)
6. [ Ignoring attributes from logging ](#content-ignoring-attributes-from-logging)
7. [ Using the CausesActivity trait ](#content-using-the-causesactivity-trait)
8. [ Using LogsActivity and CausesActivity on the same model ](#content-using-logsactivity-and-causesactivity-on-the-same-model)
9. [ Disabling logging on demand ](#content-disabling-logging-on-demand)

The package can automatically log events such as when a model is created, updated and deleted. To make this work all you need to do is let your model use the `Spatie\Activitylog\Traits\LogsActivity`-trait.

As a bonus the package will also log the changed attributes for all these events when setting `$logAttributes` property on the model.

The attributes that need to be logged can be defined either by their name or you can put in a wildcard `'*'` to log any attribute that has changed.

Here's an example:

```
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Spatie\Activitylog\Traits\LogsActivity;

class NewsItem extends Model
{
    use LogsActivity;

    protected $fillable = ['name', 'text'];

    protected static $logAttributes = ['name', 'text'];
}
```

If you want to log changes to all the `$fillable` attributes of the model, you can specify `protected static $logFillable = true;` on the model. Let's see what gets logged when creating an instance of that model.

```
$newsItem = NewsItem::create([
   'name' => 'original name',
   'text' => 'Lorum'
]);

//creating the newsItem will cause an activity being logged
$activity = Activity::all()->last();

$activity->description; //returns 'created'
$activity->subject; //returns the instance of NewsItem that was created
$activity->changes(); //returns ['attributes' => ['name' => 'original name', 'text' => 'Lorum']];
```

Now let's update some that `$newsItem`.

```
$newsItem->name = 'updated name'
$newsItem->save();

//updating the newsItem will cause an activity being logged
$activity = Activity::all()->last();

$activity->description; //returns 'updated'
$activity->subject; //returns the instance of NewsItem that was created
```

Calling `$activity->changes()` will return this array:

```
[
   'attributes' => [
        'name' => 'updated name',
        'text' => 'Lorum',
    ],
    'old' => [
        'name' => 'original name',
        'text' => 'Lorum',
    ],
];
```

Pretty Zonda, right?

Now, what happens when you call delete?

```
$newsItem->delete();

//deleting the newsItem will cause an activity being logged
$activity = Activity::all()->last();

$activity->description; //returns 'deleted'
$activity->changes(); //returns ['attributes' => ['name' => 'updated name', 'text' => 'Lorum']];
```

Customizing the events being logged
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By default the package will log the `created`, `updated`, `deleted` events. You can modify this behaviour by setting the `$recordEvents` property on a model.

```
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Spatie\Activitylog\Traits\LogsActivity;

class NewsItem extends Model
{
    use LogsActivity;

    //only the `deleted` event will get logged automatically
    protected static $recordEvents = ['deleted'];
}
```

Customizing the description
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By default the package will log `created`, `updated`, `deleted` in the description of the activity. You can modify this text by overriding the `getDescriptionForEvent` function.

```
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Spatie\Activitylog\Traits\LogsActivity;

class NewsItem extends Model
{
    use LogsActivity;

    protected $fillable = ['name', 'text'];

    public function getDescriptionForEvent(string $eventName): string
    {
        return "This model has been {$eventName}";
    }

}
```

Let's see what happens now:

```
$newsItem = NewsItem::create([
   'name' => 'original name',
   'text' => 'Lorum'
]);

//creating the newsItem will cause an activity being logged
$activity = Activity::all()->last();

$activity->description; //returns 'This model has been created'
```

Customizing the log name
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Specify `$logName` to make the model use another name than the default.

```
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Spatie\Activitylog\Traits\LogsActivity;

class NewsItem extends Model
{
    use LogsActivity;

    protected static $logName = 'system';
}
```

Ignoring changes to certain attributes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If your model contains attributes whose change don't need to trigger an activity being logged you can use `$ignoreChangedAttributes`

```
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Spatie\Activitylog\Traits\LogsActivity;

class NewsItem extends Model
{
    use LogsActivity;

    protected static $ignoreChangedAttributes = ['text'];

    protected $fillable = ['name', 'text'];

    protected static $logAttributes = ['name', 'text'];
}
```

Changing `text` will not trigger an activity being logged.

By default the `updated_at` attribute is *not* ignored and will trigger an activity being logged. You can simply add the `updated_at` attribute to the `$ignoreChangedAttributes` array to override this behaviour.

Logging only the changed attributes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you do not want to log every attribute in your `$logAttributes` variable, but only those that has actually changed after the update, you can use `$logOnlyDirty`

```
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Spatie\Activitylog\Traits\LogsActivity;

class NewsItem extends Model
{
    use LogsActivity;

    protected $fillable = ['name', 'text'];

    protected static $logAttributes = ['name', 'text'];

    protected static $logOnlyDirty = true;
}
```

Changing only `name` means only the `name` attribute will be logged in the activity, and `text` will be left out.

Ignoring attributes from logging
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you use wildcard logging, but do not want to log certain attributes, you can specify those attributes in `$logAttributesToIgnore`.

```
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Spatie\Activitylog\Traits\LogsActivity;

class NewsItem extends Model
{
    use LogsActivity;

    protected static $logAttributes = ['*'];

    protected static $logAttributesToIgnore = [ 'text'];

    protected static $logOnlyDirty = true;
}
```

Even if there are changes to `text` attribute, they will not be logged.

Using the CausesActivity trait
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The package ships with a `CausesActivity` trait which can be added to any model that you use as a causer. It provides an `activity` relationship which returns all activities that are caused by the model.

If you include it in the `User` model you can simply retrieve all the current users activities like this:

```

\Auth::user()->activity;

```

Using LogsActivity and CausesActivity on the same model
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To log activity for a model that can also cause activity, use the `HasActivity` trait. It provides an `activity` relationship which is identical to `LogsActivity` and an `actions` relationship for any activity caused by the model.

For example, if you include it in the `User` model you can see all the activity on that model performed by any user by using `activity` but also all changes caused by the user on any models using `actions`.

Disabling logging on demand
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can also disable logging for a specific model at runtime. To do so, you can use the `disableLogging()` method:

```
$newsItem = NewsItem::create([
   'name' => 'original name',
   'text' => 'Lorum'
]);

// Updating with logging disabled
$newsItem->disableLogging();

$newsItem->update(['name' => 'The new name is not logged']);
```

You can also chain `disableLogging()` with the `update()` method.

### Enable logging again

You can use the `enableLogging()` method to re-enable logging.

```
$newsItem = NewsItem::create([
   'name' => 'original name',
   'text' => 'Lorum'
]);

// Updating with logging disabled
$newsItem->disableLogging();

$newsItem->update(['name' => 'The new name is not logged']);

// Updating with logging enabled
$newsItem->enableLogging();

$newsItem->update(['name' => 'The new name is logged']);
```