laravel-logger

Activity logging and a searchable activity dashboard for Laravel applications.

• Framework Support
• Requirements
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Features
• Configuration
• Changing Frameworks
• Artisan Commands
• Testing
• License

composer update does not switch frameworks or replace your views or configuration. The default remains Bootstrap 4 with the existing Blade views. Modern views can also be selected explicitly for Bootstrap 3 or 4.

The test matrix covers Laravel 8 through 13, including Laravel 8 on PHP 7.3. The Composer runtime PHP constraint is unchanged. The existing anonymous migration requires Laravel's anonymous migration loader, available in Laravel 8.37 and later. Earlier framework installations are historical compatibility targets, not newly verified by this matrix. Cursor pagination requires a Laravel version that provides cursorPaginate.

The dashboard is rendered by Blade. Livewire, Vue, React, and Svelte applications can link to it without installing another frontend runtime. This package does not ship separate client-side dashboards.

• A Laravel application with authentication and a database connection.
• A parent Blade layout, layouts.app by default.
• Bootstrap or Tailwind assets in the host application. The modern Bootstrap 5 views can load Bootstrap CSS from a CDN when enableBootstrapCssCDN is enabled.
• PHP's zip and XMLWriter extensions for Excel exports.

composer require jeremykenedy/laravel-logger
php artisan logger:install
php artisan migrate

The installer detects an existing config/laravel-logger.php and asks before continuing. In unattended deployments, use logger:update, or logger:install --force to skip that confirmation. Configuration and published view overrides are preserved even with --force. Database migrations remain a separate step.

For a modern dashboard:

php artisan logger:install --css=bootstrap5 --views=modern --theme=system

The installer publishes configuration if missing and dashboard assets to public/vendor/laravel-logger. Views remain in the package unless --publish-views is supplied. Existing vendor:publish --tag=LaravelLogger and LaravelLogger-legacy language publishing continue to work.

The parent layout must render content, template_linked_css, and footer_scripts, or the section names in your configuration:

<head>
    @yield('template_linked_css')
</head>
<body>
    @yield('content')
    @yield('footer_scripts')
</body>

For layouts using stacks, set bladePlacement to stack and use @stack for the CSS and script placements. The dashboard honors your layout and does not load a second application shell.

Laravel 5.4 and earlier require manual Logger provider registration. Existing Lumen installations should keep their activity middleware registration, copy the configuration, and set LARAVEL_LOGGER_DISABLE_ROUTES=true; they do not use the dashboard or the new setup commands.

Crawler detection is included in Laravel Logger. Composer no longer installs jaybizzle/laravel-crawler-detect or jaybizzle/crawler-detect. Existing manual crawler provider registration, the old crawler facade, and the LaravelCrawlerDetect container binding remain supported through compatibility aliases. If your application explicitly requires either package, Composer keeps that dependency and its classes take precedence. Logger preserves custom detector bindings. The bundled patterns are shipped with the package and update when Logger is released.

Attach the activity middleware to routes you want recorded:

Route::get('/dashboard', [DashboardController::class, 'index'])->middleware(['auth', 'activity']);

Or use the trait in your controller or service:

use jeremykenedy\LaravelLogger\App\Http\Traits\ActivityLogger;

class AccountController extends Controller
{
    use ActivityLogger;

    public function update()
    {
        $this->activity('Updated account', 'Changed billing address', [
            'id' => 42,
            'model' => Account::class,
        ]);
    }
}

Visit /activity while signed in. The existing rolesEnabled and rolesMiddlware settings can restrict the dashboard and exports to an administrative role. Without those settings, any authenticated user has access, matching existing behavior.

Use a regular link from the frontend your application already uses:

{{-- Blade or Livewire --}}
<a href="{{ route('activity') }}">Activity log</a>

<!-- Vue -->
<a href="https://github.com/jeremykenedy/laravel-logger/blob/HEAD/activity">Activity log</a>

// React
<a href="/activity">Activity log</a>

<!-- Svelte -->
<a href="/activity">Activity log</a>

• Route middleware, manual activity logging, and configurable authentication listeners.
• Registered users, guests, and built-in crawler detection, including alternate user-agent headers.
• Search by description, user, method, route, and IP address.
• Inclusive date ranges and preset periods, including cursor-paginated lists.
• CSV, JSON, and valid Excel workbook downloads with the same filters as the dashboard.
• Activity details and related user history.
• Clear, restore, and permanently delete cleared logs through existing routes.
• Configurable activity model, user model, user identifier, table, and connection.
• Existing translation namespaces and published view overrides.
• Opt-in modern views with responsive tables, keyboard focus, and light, dark, or system themes.

Published settings live in config/laravel-logger.php; package code reads the existing LaravelLogger configuration namespace. Missing options in older published config files receive package defaults.

Modern views do not load jQuery, Bootstrap JavaScript, Popper, Font Awesome, or DataTables. A single theme button cycles through light, dark, and system mode. It displays the sun, moon, or monitor icon for the selected mode. Set enableThemeToggle to false in config/laravel-logger.php, or set LARAVEL_LOGGER_THEME_TOGGLE=false, to hide it. System mode follows changes to the device's color scheme. The selected mode is saved for this dashboard, independently of the host application's theme. Explicit light or dark configuration takes precedence on page load.

IP logging uses Laravel's trusted-proxy configuration. Configure trusted proxies in the host application when traffic passes through Cloudflare or a load balancer.

Filter and export examples:

/activity?date_from=2026-10-01&date_to=2026-10-07
/activity?period=last_7_days&description=Updated
/activity/export?format=csv&period=today
/activity/export?format=json&user=42
/activity/export?format=excel&method=POST

All dashboard, lookup, export, clear, restore, and delete routes retain web, auth, and activity middleware. Route names remain activity, cleared, clear-activity, destroy-activity, restore-activity, liveSearch, and export-activity.

Run the interactive updater:

php artisan logger:update

Or pass the choices directly:

php artisan logger:update --css=bootstrap5 --views=modern --theme=system
php artisan logger:switch --css=tailwind
php artisan logger:switch --css=bootstrap4 --views=legacy

The update command preserves configuration and view overrides while refreshing package assets. The switch command makes the same validated setting changes without prompts. These commands use your application's configured environment file and do not install npm packages or optional Laravel packages. Run php artisan config:clear first if configuration is cached, then rebuild that cache after switching.

After switching, run npm run build in applications that bundle their CSS. Tailwind needs to scan both the views and the PHP class strings. For Tailwind 4, add these paths relative to resources/css/app.css:

@source "../../vendor/jeremykenedy/laravel-logger/src/resources/views";
@source "../../vendor/jeremykenedy/laravel-logger/src/Support/Dashboard.php";

For Tailwind 3, add those paths to content in tailwind.config.js. Disable enableBootstrapCssCDN if your layout already bundles Bootstrap. Optional UI packages can remain in your application's layout; Logger does not require them or change their configuration.

Install options:

The existing publish tags remain available. LaravelLogger-config, LaravelLogger-views, and LaravelLogger-assets allow individual publishing. Use vendor:publish --tag=LaravelLogger-views --force only when you intentionally want to replace view customizations.

composer install
composer test
composer lint
composer analyse
npm ci
npm run test:browser

Tests run against an isolated SQLite database through Orchestra Testbench. See TESTING.md for the matrix, browser fixture, and coverage commands. FEATURES.md describes filtering and export behavior. The existing video tour and legacy dashboard screenshots remain useful for applications using the original views.

The bundled crawler pattern and test data notices are in THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.md.

Scrutinizer analysis: project dashboard.

This package is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.