wagtail/docs/extending/audit_log.md

(audit_log)=

Audit log

Wagtail provides a mechanism to log actions performed on its objects. Common activities such as page creation, update, deletion, locking and unlocking, revision scheduling and privacy changes are automatically logged at the model level.

The Wagtail admin uses the action log entries to provide a site-wide and page specific history of changes. It uses a registry of 'actions' that provide additional context for the logged action.

The audit log-driven Page history replaces the revisions list page, but provide a filter for revision-specific entries.

The audit log does not replace revisions.

The wagtail.log_actions.log function can be used to add logging to your own code.

.. function:: log(instance, action, user=None, uuid=None, title=None, data=None)

   Adds an entry to the audit log.

   :param instance: The model instance that the action is performed on
   :param action: The code name for the action being performed. This can be one of the names listed below, or a custom action defined through the :ref:`register_log_actions` hook.
   :param user: Optional - the user initiating the action. For actions logged within an admin view, this defaults to the logged-in user.
   :param uuid: Optional - log entries given the same UUID indicates that they occurred as part of the same user action (e.g. a page being immediately published on creation).
   :param title: The string representation of the instance being logged. By default, Wagtail will attempt to use the instance's ``str`` representation, or ``get_admin_display_title`` for page objects.
   :param data: Optional - a dictionary of additional JSON-serialisable data to store against the log entry

When adding logging, you need to log the action or actions that happen to the object. For example, if the user creates and publishes a page, there should be a "create" entry and a "publish" entry. Or, if the user copies a published page and chooses to keep it published, there should be a "copy" and a "publish" entry for new page.

    # mypackage/views.py
    from wagtail.log_actions import log

    def copy_for_translation(page):
        # ...
        page.copy(log_action='mypackage.copy_for_translation')

    def my_method(request, page):
        # ..
        # Manually log an action
        data = {
            'make': {'it': 'so'}
        }
        log(
            instance=page, action='mypackage.custom_action', data=data
        )

The `log` function was added. Previously, logging was only implemented for pages, and invoked through the `PageLogEntry.objects.log_action` method.

Log actions provided by Wagtail

Action	Notes
wagtail.create	The object was created
wagtail.edit	The object was edited (for pages, saved as draft)
wagtail.delete	The object was deleted. Will only surface in the Site History for administrators
wagtail.publish	The page was published
wagtail.publish.schedule	Draft is scheduled for publishing
wagtail.publish.scheduled	Draft published via publish_scheduled_pages management command
wagtail.schedule.cancel	Draft scheduled for publishing cancelled via "Cancel scheduled publish"
wagtail.unpublish	The page was unpublished
wagtail.unpublish.scheduled	Page unpublished via publish_scheduled_pages management command
wagtail.lock	Page was locked
wagtail.unlock	Page was unlocked
wagtail.moderation.approve	The revision was approved for moderation
wagtail.moderation.reject	The revision was rejected
wagtail.rename	A page was renamed
wagtail.revert	The page was reverted to a previous draft
wagtail.copy	The page was copied to a new location
wagtail.copy_for_translation	The page was copied into a new locale for translation
wagtail.move	The page was moved to a new location
wagtail.reorder	The order of the page under it's parent was changed
wagtail.view_restriction.create	The page was restricted
wagtail.view_restriction.edit	The page restrictions were updated
wagtail.view_restriction.delete	The page restrictions were removed
wagtail.workflow.start	The page was submitted for moderation in a Workflow
wagtail.workflow.approve	The draft was approved at a Workflow Task
wagtail.workflow.reject	The draft was rejected, and changes requested at a Workflow Task
wagtail.workflow.resume	The draft was resubmitted to the workflow
wagtail.workflow.cancel	The workflow was cancelled

Log context

The wagtail.log_actions module provides a context manager to simplify code that logs a large number of actions, such as import scripts:

from wagtail.log_actions import LogContext

with LogContext(user=User.objects.get(username='admin')):
    # ...
    log(page, 'wagtail.edit')
    # ...
    log(page, 'wagtail.publish')

All log calls within the block will then be attributed to the specified user, and assigned a common UUID. A log context is created automatically for views within the Wagtail admin.

Log models

Logs are stored in the database via the models wagtail.models.PageLogEntry (for actions on Page instances) and wagtail.models.ModelLogEntry (for actions on all other models). Page logs are stored in their own model to ensure that reports can be filtered according to the current user's permissions, which could not be done efficiently with a generic foreign key.

If your own models have complex reporting requirements that would make ModelLogEntry unsuitable, you can configure them to be logged to their own log model; this is done by subclassing the abstract wagtail.models.BaseLogEntry model, and registering that model with the log registry's register_model method:

from myapp.models import Sprocket, SprocketLogEntry
# here SprocketLogEntry is a subclass of BaseLogEntry

@hooks.register('register_log_actions')
def sprocket_log_model(actions):
    actions.register_model(Sprocket, SprocketLogEntry)