Administrative and Maintenance Tools - User Activity Logging

USER ACTIVITY LOGGING.

Description:
This Mod will (eventually) allow you to track a users activity from any script within vB or its addons ... well at least those that make use of the Hook features.

Background:
I have seen various requests around for some form of user logging but never been able to find an actual Mod. As we had a need for this on our site I decided to write my own.
I have been working with vB for a couple of years now (and a php coder for a lot more) and made use of a number of other coders Mods, both as they had been released or customized to suit our own purposes. Although not a very active poster here at vBorg, it is one of my regular visits.

Installation:
Standard Product Import using the AdminCP.
No template changes.
Optional (for AdminCP Log Viewer):
- Upload contents of zip file

Upgrade:
Will be as above, but select 'Overwrite'

Features:
Database and/or Thread notification of activity
Selectable Forum for Thread notification
Selectable posting User for Thread notification
On/Off for each logging area
AdminCP Log Viewer/Pruner
Additional thread option for logging all Log-ins and outs

Current Logging Areas:
showthread - logs when a user views a thread (this is currently the only one I am using and I am actually happy with)
forumdisplay - logs when a user views the forumdisplay script
search - logs when a user makes a search
editpost - logs when a user edits a post
log-ins/log-outs - logs successful and unsuccessful log-ins and log-outs
profile views - logs when a user views the 'member profile' page

ChangeLog:
v1.0.6 (28 Nov,2007) - incorporated IPAddress tracking as provided by dartho (thanks )
v1.0.5 (16 May,2007) - added profile viewing both for 'logged users' and 'all user to a separate thread'. No admincp file update required. NB: Check options after upgrading.
v1.0.4 (07 May,2007) - added log-in/out logging both for 'logged users' and 'all user to a separate thread'. No admincp file update required.
v1.0.3 (27 April, 2007) - Corrected 1 thread per logged user issue, added 'editpost' logging area
v1.0.2 (25 April, 2007) - Check for deleted thread & added AdminCP Log Viewer
v1.0.1 (24 April, 2007) - Error in XML
v1.0.0 (24 April, 2007) - Initial release

Future Enhancements?:
Additional logging areas (just ask and I'll look in to it)
[S]Viewable log transcripts taken from database entries[/S] - completed
Usergroup logging

Thanks To:
All those other coders whose Mods I have installed and learned from

Note: This is the first Mod I have actually released here (or anywhere), so please go easy on me
Hopefully I have the Product URL and Version Checking URL links right.

[dxguru]

Originally Posted by C_P

Yes, that would be nice to also log guest attempts as well as user attempts. Maybe by user group?

Short answer is yes, but you would need to modify the core vB code to add some extra Hook locations.

Basically with this hack you can log any script at any point where there exists a Hook. No hook - no log. But there is nothing preventing us adding our own Hook locations (except ease of upgrades )

PM me if you would be interested in discussing having me do this for you.

[bell19189]

it killed my forum... i kept getting fatal errors as soon as it was installed, when i removed it everything went back to normal... anyone else had anything similar happen? and or know how to fix it

[dxguru]

Originally Posted by Charlie98902

Great potential this mod is I'll wait till it's out of beta stage and tweaked as mentioned above. Yes logging in the users trying to log into another member is a nice feature to have. I assume there is a way to clear this log as well?

Currently the database side is simply to start logging entires. Nothing so far is done with the data and you can turn off database logging if you wish.

My plan is to provide an ACP interface similar to the Moderator Logging already included (which is where I got the basic code idea from)

[dxguru]

Originally Posted by bell19189

it killed my forum... i kept getting fatal errors as soon as it was installed, when i removed it everything went back to normal... anyone else had anything similar happen? and or know how to fix it

What kind of fatal errors? Could you send me a screen shot please.

[C_P]

Originally Posted by dxguru

Short answer is yes, but you would need to modify the core vB code to add some extra Hook locations.

Basically with this hack you can log any script at any point where there exists a Hook. No hook - no log. But there is nothing preventing us adding our own Hook locations (except ease of upgrades )

PM me if you would be interested in discussing having me do this for you.

PM sent and no bell19189 I have not installed yet. Asking for enhancement to this before I review.

[dxguru]

Just had a thought regarding the fatal errors. Originally I had set the XML to install Inactive because you need to set up the options before turning it on. This is possibly what caused the errors.

I will put some option-error-checking in it for the next update.

[dxguru]

OK, I've done some additional testing with a variety of incorrect option settings ... cannot get it to cause fatal errors.

No User ID's ... nothing gets logged
No Forum Selected ... nothing gets posted
No Posting User ... nothing gets posted
User ID but nothing else ... no postings
etc

I will be really interested to discover what caused the fatal error.

[beduino]

I will test - but the concept is very interesting!
Thanks for share.
All the best
joao barroca
aka beduino
ps. your site it's very useful too

[Mastar]

Here is my error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: build_thread_counters() in /home/down/public_html/forums/includes/init.php(319) : eval()'d code on line 89

[dxguru]

Originally Posted by Mastar

Here is my error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: build_thread_counters() in /home/down/public_html/forums/includes/init.php(319) : eval()'d code on line 89

Thanks Mastar. I didn't think about what would happen if the logging thread was deleted

I have corrected this problem and also added an optional AdminCP Log Viewer/Pruner.