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Activity Tool

WordPress activity log plugin: records post, media, user and plugin events in a read-only admin log.

by Rolando Escobar · github.com/rolandototo/activity-tool · website

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Install

No release zip yet. The repository archive installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow:

wp plugin install https://github.com/rolandototo/activity-tool/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
Readme github.com/rolandototo/activity-tool ↗

A WordPress activity log plugin. It records important events on the site (content, media, users and plugins) and lists them on a read-only admin screen that only administrators can see.

What it logs

Area Events WordPress hook
Posts, pages and custom post types Created (as draft, pending, etc.), published, updated (saving a published post), trashed, restored, other status changes transition_post_status
Permanently deleted, from the trash or directly before_delete_post
Media Added, modified, deleted add_attachment, edit_attachment, delete_attachment
Users Registered, profile updated, deleted user_register, profile_update, delete_user
Plugins Activated, deactivated activated_plugin, deactivated_plugin
  • Every entry records the logged-in user who did it. On self-registration, the new user is recorded.
  • Bulk actions (such as "Move to Trash" on several posts) log one entry per post.
  • Only post types with an admin UI are logged. Revisions, auto-drafts, menu items and other internal types are skipped, and saving a draft without changing its status isn't logged.

Admin screen

  • A new Activity menu (clock icon) lists all entries with these columns: Title (the event), ID (links to the edit screen of the affected post, attachment or user, if it still exists), User (login name) and Date.
  • Only administrators (manage_options) can see the log or delete entries.
  • Entries are read-only:
    • They can't be created or published by hand.
    • The Publish box, Quick Edit and Bulk Edit are removed.
    • The "Edit" link is renamed View and opens an Activity Details box.

How data is stored

Each entry is a post of the non-public activity post type:

Field Content
Post title The event message, e.g. Hello world was published
_activity_user_id (meta) ID of the user who did it (0 for cron jobs)
_modified_post_id (meta) ID of the affected post or attachment
_modified_user_id (meta) ID of the affected user, for user events

Requirements

  • WordPress 6.0+
  • PHP 7.4+

Installation

  1. Download this repository as a ZIP (Code > Download ZIP).
  2. In WordPress, go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin, upload the ZIP and activate Activity Tool.

Or clone it into wp-content/plugins/. Logging starts as soon as the plugin is active; there are no settings.

Limitations

  • Old entries aren't cleaned up automatically.
  • Messages are stored in the site language at the time of the event.
  • Administrators can delete entries, so it isn't a tamper-proof audit log.

Changelog

1.1.0

  • Security: all output in the list and the details box is escaped.
  • The log is visible only to administrators. Before, editors could read and delete entries.
  • Fixed duplicate entries for bulk trash and for restores, the missing log for a second trash, and the missing log for permanent deletes.
  • User events record who did them, and the ID column links to the user's profile.
  • Internal post types (menu items, revisions) and repeated draft saves are no longer logged.
  • Every string is translatable under the activity-tool text domain. The license header now matches the GPL-3.0 LICENSE file.
  • Removed an unused export method.

Entries created by 1.0 for profile updates stored the user ID as a post ID, so their ID column may link to the wrong item.

1.0

  • First version.

File structure

AtivityPlugin.php   The whole plugin (the file name is kept so existing installs stay active)
LICENSE             GNU GPL v3
README.md           This file

Author

Rolando Escobar, WordPress developer. rolandowp.com

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.