I wanted to add a tool to log users’ activity in my current application. I wanted something simple, and decided that the solution was to combine two techniques:<\/p>\n
One: making session data available at the model and observer level. An article by Geoff Lane<\/a> gave me the information I needed to be able to achieve that.<\/p>\n Two: use an observer to catch Model call backs and trigger an action in response. The Rails api documentation gave me the information I needed on creating an observer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here is a simple example as to how I was able to add an activity logger using these two techniques.<\/p>\n First I created a new module:<\/p>\n This was based on Geoff Lane’s UserInfo module. I made two changes: I used a more descriptive module name; and I changed the method name because current_user was already used in the controller by my authentication system (‘restful_authentication’). The later stopped me logging in successfully until I spotted the problem.<\/p>\n I then added these two lines to my ApplicationController:<\/p>\n Together with this private method:<\/p>\n So very similar to Geoff Lane’s code except with more descriptive method names.<\/p>\n I then needed to add the observer:<\/p>\n However, nothing happened until I added this line to config\/environment.rb:<\/p>\n Note that config.active_record.observers only gets called at application start, so you may need to stop and start your application before the observer starts working.<\/p>\n I now have a system I can extend to log activity. As shown above, only changes to accounts and licenses are logged, and the log just outputs to the console at the moment. However, now I have the mechanism, it is easy to create a new ActivityLog model and save the log entries to that in whatever format I fancy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I wanted to add a tool to log users’ activity in my current application. I wanted something simple, and decided that the solution was to combine two techniques: One: making session data available at the model and observer level. An … Continue reading
\n def<\/span> user_in_thread
\n Thread<\/span>.current<\/span>[<\/span>:user<\/span>]<\/span>
\n end<\/span>
\n
\n def<\/span> self<\/span>.user_in_thread<\/span>=(<\/span>user)<\/span>
\n Thread<\/span>.current<\/span>[<\/span>:user<\/span>]<\/span> = user
\n end<\/span>
\nend<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
\n before_filter :pass_current_user_to_thread_where_it_can_be_seen_by_observer<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
\n MakeUserAvailableViaThread.user_in_thread<\/span> = self<\/span>.current_user<\/span>
\n end<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
\n observe :account<\/span>, :license<\/span>
\n
\n include<\/span> MakeUserAvailableViaThread
\n
\n def<\/span> after_update(<\/span>record)<\/span>
\n puts<\/span>(<\/span>"HEY! something changed: #{user_in_thread.full_name if user_in_thread} altered #{record.class.to_s} #{record.id}"<\/span>)<\/span>
\n end<\/span>
\n
\n def<\/span> after_create(<\/span>record)<\/span>
\n puts<\/span>(<\/span>"HEY! something changed: #{user_in_thread.full_name if user_in_thread} created #{record.class.to_s} #{record.id}"<\/span>)<\/span>
\n end<\/span>
\nend<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n