NAME

DBIx::Class::AuditLog - Simple activity audit logging for DBIx::Class

SYNOPSIS

Enable the AuditLog schema component in your DBIx::Class::Schema class file:

package My::Schema;
use base qw/DBIx::Class::Schema/;

__PACKAGE__->load_components(qw/Schema::AuditLog/);

Enable the AuditLog component in your the individual DBIx::Class table class files that you want to enable logging on:

   package My::Schema::Result::Table
   use base qw/DBIx::Class::Core/;

   __PACKAGE__->load_components(qw/AuditLog/);

In your application wrap any insert/update/delete in a transaction to have audit logging activated:

$my_schema->txn_do(
    sub {
        $my_row->update({ ... });
    }
);

Optionally pass an extra hashref to the txn_do method to indicate a user and/or a description for the transaction:

$my_schema->txn_do(
    sub {
        $my_row->update({ ... });
    },
    {
        user => 'username_or_id', # optional
        description => 'description of transaction' # optional
    }
);

DESCRIPTION

DBIx::Class::AuditLog is meant for tracking changes made to specific tables in your database.

Any insert/update/delete that requires auditing must be wrapped in a "txn_do" statement.

Transactions are saved as Changesets. Each Changeset can have many Actions. An Action can be of type insert/update/delete. Actions can have many Changes. Changes show the data that was changed during an action.

By default all columns will be audited in any table where the AuditLog component is loaded.

On an individual column basis you can disable auditing by setting 'audit_log_column' to 0:

__PACKAGE__->add_columns(
  "admin_id",
  { data_type => "integer", is_auto_increment => 1, is_nullable => 0, audit_log_column => 0 },
  "admin_name",
  { data_type => "varchar", is_nullable => 0, size => 20 },
  "admin_pasword",
  { data_type => "varchar", is_nullable => 0, size => 20 },
);

If you are using a DBIx::Class generated schema, and don't want to modify the column defintions directly, you can add the following to the editable portion of the Result Class file:

__PACKAGE__->add_columns(
    "+admin_id",
    { audit_log_column => 0, }
);

TABLE STRUCTURE

The AuditLog schema is a self-contained schema that keeps no relationships to your main schema.

The AuditLog schema consists of 6 tables:

+-------------------------+
| Tables_audit_log_schema |
+-------------------------+
| audit_log_action        |
| audit_log_change        |
| audit_log_changeset     |
| audit_log_field         |
| audit_log_table         |
| audit_log_user          |
+-------------------------+
User

This table contains a unique list of users that have executed transactions. The 'name' field is used to store the User identifier. This could be used for a user's name or id or other unique identifier as needed.

This table does not get a relationship to any table in your main schema.

mysql> select * from audit_log_user order by id;
+----+---------------------+
| id | name                |
+----+---------------------+
|  1 | TestAdminUser       |
|  2 | YetAnotherAdminUser |
|  3 | ioncache            |
|  4 | markj               |
+----+---------------------+
4 rows in set (0.01 sec)
Changeset

An AuditLogChangeset is an identifier for a transaction. It can have many Actions. It can optionally be owned by a User. And optionally have a description.

mysql> select * from audit_log_changeset order by id;
+----+----------------------------------------------+---------------------+------+
| id | description                                  | timestamp           | user |
+----+----------------------------------------------+---------------------+------+
|  1 | adding new user: JohnSample                  | 2012-06-22 17:16:25 |    1 |
|  2 | updating username: JaneSample                | 2012-06-22 17:16:25 |    1 |
|  3 | delete user: JohnSample                      | 2012-06-22 17:16:25 |    2 |
|  4 | adding new user: TehPwnerer -- no admin user | 2012-06-22 17:16:25 | NULL |
|  5 | multi-action changeset                       | 2012-06-22 17:16:25 |    3 |
|  6 | NULL                                         | 2012-06-22 17:16:25 |    4 |
+----+----------------------------------------------+---------------------+------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Action

An AuditLogAction is an insert/update/delete belonging to a Changeset. It is also owned by Table.

mysql> select * from audit_log_action order by id;
+----+-----------+---------------+-------------+--------+
| id | changeset | audited_table | audited_row | type   |
+----+-----------+---------------+-------------+--------+
|  1 |         1 |             1 |           8 | insert |
|  2 |         2 |             1 |           7 | update |
|  3 |         3 |             1 |           7 | delete |
|  4 |         4 |             1 |           9 | insert |
|  5 |         5 |             1 |          10 | insert |
|  6 |         5 |             1 |          11 | insert |
|  7 |         5 |             1 |          11 | update |
|  8 |         5 |             1 |           9 | update |
|  9 |         6 |             1 |          13 | insert |
| 10 |         6 |             1 |          13 | update |
+----+-----------+---------------+-------------+--------+
10 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Change

An AuditLogChange contains changed data for one AuditLogField in an AuditLogAction. The original value is stored in the old_value field and the new value is stored in the new_value field.

mysql> select * from audit_log_change order by id;
+----+--------+-------+--------------+--------------+
| id | action | field | old_value    | new_value    |
+----+--------+-------+--------------+--------------+
|  1 |      1 |     1 | NULL         | JohnSample   |
|  2 |      1 |     2 | NULL         | 8            |
|  3 |      1 |     3 | NULL         | 999-888-7777 |
|  4 |      3 |     1 | JohnSample   | NULL         |
|  5 |      3 |     2 | 7            | NULL         |
|  6 |      3 |     3 | 999-888-7777 | NULL         |
|  7 |      4 |     1 | NULL         | TehPnwerer   |
|  8 |      4 |     2 | NULL         | 9            |
|  9 |      4 |     3 | NULL         | 999-888-7777 |
| 10 |      5 |     1 | NULL         | Superman     |
| 11 |      5 |     2 | NULL         | 10           |
| 12 |      5 |     3 | NULL         | 123-456-7890 |
| 13 |      6 |     1 | NULL         | Spiderman    |
| 14 |      6 |     2 | NULL         | 11           |
| 15 |      6 |     3 | NULL         | 987-654-3210 |
| 16 |      8 |     1 | TehPnwerer   | TehPwnerer   |
| 17 |      8 |     3 | 999-888-7777 | 416-123-4567 |
| 18 |      9 |     1 | NULL         | Drunk Hulk   |
| 19 |      9 |     2 | NULL         | 13           |
| 20 |      9 |     3 | NULL         | 123-456-7890 |
+----+--------+-------+--------------+--------------+
20 rows in set (0.00 sec)
AuditedTable

An AuditLogAuditedTable contains a unique list of tables that are being tracked. The name field contains the name of a table from your database. AuditLogAuditedTable rows are added as needed whenever an insert/update/date occurs.

Note: at least for DB2, the table name will have the schema name added as well, eg., myschema.foo for the foo table in schema myschema.

mysql> select * from audit_log_table order by id;
+----+------+
| id | name |
+----+------+
|  1 | user |
+----+------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
Field

An AuditLogField contains a unique list of fields for each table that is being audited. The name field contains the name of a field from a specific table inyour database. AuditLogField rows are added as needed whenever an insert/update/date occurs.

mysql> select * from audit_log_field order by id;
+----+---------------+-------+
| id | audited_table | name  |
+----+---------------+-------+
|  1 |             1 | name  |
|  2 |             1 | id    |
|  3 |             1 | phone |
+----+---------------+-------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

DEPLOYMENT

To deploy an AuditLog schema, load your main schema, and then run the deploy command on the audit_log_schema:

my $schema = AuditTest::Schema->connect( "DBI:mysql:database=audit_test",
    "root", "somepassword", { RaiseError => 1, PrintError => 0 } );

$schema->audit_log_schema->deploy;

The db user that is deploying the schema must have the correct create table permissions.

Note: this should only be run once.

METHODS

audit_log_schema

Returns: DBIC schema

The Audit Log schema can be accessed from your main schema by calling the audit_log_schema method.

my $al_schema = $schema->audit_log_schema;

get_changes

Required: id, table
Optional: field, action_type
Returns: DBIC resultset

A convenience method for reading changes from the Audit Log.

my $al_schema = $schema->audit_log_schema;
my $changes  = $al_schema->get_changes({
    id => 1,
    table => 'foo',
    field => 'bar', # optional,
    action_type => 'insert', # optional, 1 of insert, update, delete
    
});

TODO

  • add auto-deploy of schema if it doesn't exist

  • add more convenience method(s) for retrieving changes from the Audit Log schema

SEE ALSO

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Development time supported by OANDA www.oanda.com.

Many ideas and code borrowed from DBIx::Class::Journal.

AUTHOR

Mark Jubenville (ioncache)

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

This software is copyright (c) 2012 by Mark Jubenville.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.