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PHP logging class v. 1.2

Hi guys,
I've decided to give out a PHP class I created to easily log anything we want in our websites.

Features

This are the things the logging class will do:

  • Store different security levels (Low, Medium, and High)
  • Get the real visitor's IP for every log entry
  • Allow several optional parameters, such as message, priority, page...
  • Easily translated into other languages
  • TABLE_LOGS.sql.txt - This file creates the table 'log'

And this is a screenshot of the log page in action (Or go to the sample page and take a look)
Screenshot of log

Class files and code:

The following files are the really important files:

  • log.class.php - This file contains the logging functions.
  • database.php - This file handles database connection and queries.
  • config.php - This file defines the configuration constants used for database queries. You should only edit this file.
  • logInit.php - This file includes all necessary files and initializes the classes storing them in the appropriate objects

Also, for the example, there are two other files: 'log.php' and 'test.php'. The log.php file shows a sample log, and the test.php shows a sample usage page.

Log in use:

I've set up a test page and a log page. In the test page there are several "common" stuff that you would normally log (A login form, an edit form, and a contact form)

I would recommend that you check those out, in any order you like, and experiment with the different options you'll see in the test page

Usage:

The usage of this logging class is VERY very simple, First of all download the zip with the needed files.
Then you must fill in all the variables in the config.php page.
Once all is configured, upload it to your server, and insert the following code in all the pages you will like to log activity:

 
< ?php
//Initialize logging clases
include('logInit.php');
//
?>
 

This is the initialization of the logging object and all other needed stuff.

The logging function is:

 
< ?php
$log->logg('page','message','priority','class','mail');
?>
 

Parameters explanation:

  • Page: This is the page where the log is placed. Set to 1 and it will be automatically detected.
  • Message: This is the message you want to have the log store. You can have some preset messages which are stored in the log.class.php file. Set to 1 to have a preset message stored.
  • Priority: This is the priority or Importance of the log entry. Values can be: High,Medium,Low.
  • Class: This is the class you want the log entry to have. Values are: Red, Danger, Yellow, Green, and Blue.
  • Mail: This setting can be yes or no. If it is not specified it will be set to "no".

You can edit the list of pre-set important pages in the file log.class.php, which is strongly recommended.

Download

Here you may download the zip file containing all necessary files to get the logging running:

Download zip - v. 1.2 - 22kb (1843 downloads)
Mirror #2 Zip file - @ PHP Classes (Without the icons)

It includes a css file with all needed styles, the icons, a log emptying page, a log sample page, the test page, and all the other files needed for the logging.

If you improve this script, or you find any bugs, report them using the comments please!
And remember, for any doubt or problem you have with the usage of this class, comment here and leave an email in the field email so I can answer you!

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 8:08 pm and is filed under General talk, PHP, Programming, Web-related. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Comments
Comments
Blogsvine's gravatar.
Blogsvine said on March 21st, 2008 at 8:15 pm:

PHP logging class:…

This is a php class that will allow you to easily log any important activity in your site. It doesn’t require any programming skills as it is very easy to install and use….

Jesper Noehr's gravatar.
Jesper Noehr said on March 22nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm:

Looks nice and clean. I would give this a try if I still used PHP.

One question though, why is the logging method named `logg’ and not just `log’?

alex's gravatar.
alex said on March 22nd, 2008 at 4:22 pm:

Well, I named the function logg because in php there is a core function called log(), and I just decided to add another g at the end to avoid duplicating… :)

Jesper Noehr's gravatar.
Jesper Noehr said on March 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm:

Okay, but since this is a method on your own class, that shouldn’t matter. You could name it `require_once’ for all PHP cares ;-)

alex's gravatar.
alex said on March 22nd, 2008 at 4:42 pm:

OK, now you just got me there! I didn’t know that methods inside classes could be named the same as core functions!
Well, I guess I will leave this function as-is, but for future classes I’ll develop I’ll take that into account!

Thanks for your comments Jesper, it is very nice to have someone bother :)

Web 2.0 Announcer's gravatar.
Web 2.0 Announcer said on March 24th, 2008 at 9:14 pm:

PHP logging class…

[...]This is a php class that will allow you to easily log any important activity in your site. It doesn't require any programming skills as it is very easy to install and use.[...]…

PHP logging class v.1.2: una classe per il log degli eventi : php5blog.it's gravatar.
PHP logging class v.1.2: una classe per il log degli eventi : php5blog.it said on March 25th, 2008 at 7:38 am:

[...] l’argomento delle risorse gratis trattato qualche giorno fa, segnalo una classe per i log degli avvenimenti del proprio sito. Si tratta di PHP Logging Class v.1.2 di cui vediamo [...]

kate's gravatar.
kate said on March 25th, 2008 at 1:13 pm:

its great
http://www.w3answers.com

fluminis's gravatar.
fluminis said on March 25th, 2008 at 2:59 pm:

Well, I thinks that a log system should not be based on a database if you want to log critical errors. For example, what do you do if there is a problem connecting the database ?

In one on my site, I get a lot of too_many_connections errors. So logging into a database to trace such error is not the good solution…

But if your purpose is to store not too critical information in order to display them to the admin user (failed connection) it could be enough.

Thanks for sharing

alex's gravatar.
alex said on March 25th, 2008 at 3:30 pm:

Thanks a lot for your comments!

@fluminis:
I guess that for that purpose it would be better to have it stored in a plain text file probably. But the aim of this logging system is more of a “activity” log than a parsing or database error. The main point of it is to store failed logins for example, to know if someone might be trying to hack a site through the forms, or the other things I have in the example page.

Anyway it is a good idea writing the log to a text file, if I develop another version of this logging class I will add the option in the config.php file to chose between writing to a file or to a database.
Thanks for the ideas

david gurba's gravatar.
david gurba said on March 25th, 2008 at 3:47 pm:

my only gripe is that you are not using php5 PDO object for database usage. For a simple logging class I don’t see why you make a custom database class and wrap only mysql_* functions.

-dg

alex's gravatar.
alex said on March 25th, 2008 at 4:59 pm:

The only reason I created a mysql class to handle the connection and queries to the database was to make it easier to build on the logging class, so that adding complex mysql queries and functions would be easier, and to separate the logging class from the sql functions too, so that it is possible to use other SQL libraries other than MySQL.

If you make a better version, or a PHP5 version of this class it would be great if you emailed it to me to add it here for other users, so if you do just tell me and I’ll be more than glad to add you here!

roScripts - Webmaster resources and websites's gravatar.
roScripts - Webmaster resources and websites said on March 25th, 2008 at 8:15 pm:

Urbano’s Blog » PHP logging class…

This class can be used to log activity to a database It can add activity entries to a log database table…

Weekend Links – Ajax ASCII Art, Website Evolution, FlexiGrid jQuery, IE CSS Compatibility, jQuery File Tree, PHP Logging Class's gravatar.
Weekend Links - Ajax ASCII Art, Website Evolution, FlexiGrid jQuery, IE CSS Compatibility, jQuery File Tree, PHP Logging Class said on March 29th, 2008 at 2:32 pm:

[...] PHP Logging Class
I’ve tinkered around with creating my own logging class but after seeing this I may not have to. If you’re PHP programmer, try out this awesome logging class. It could save you a lot of time down the road![...]

Angelo22's gravatar.
Angelo22 said on April 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 am:

Wow, how did you come up with something like this? Great post!

alex's gravatar.
alex said on April 3rd, 2008 at 2:17 pm:

Well I had this website where many users where trying to hack my admin panel, and the worrying part was that some actually managed, so I first wanted to create an IP blacklist, and then when I did the IP logging I decided to extend it to log everything I could, to know what was going on at my site.
And the result was this ;)

aruma's gravatar.
aruma said on April 4th, 2008 at 5:00 am:

its very helpfull class
enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.w3answers.com

Sueblimely's gravatar.
Sueblimely said on April 6th, 2008 at 5:04 pm:

I like how you coded it, and I agree with aruma, a great post!
Downloaded it, now I’ll try to insert it in my site!

alex's gravatar.
alex said on April 25th, 2008 at 4:14 pm:

Hope you find it easy to use ;)
If you run into any problems just comment and I’ll help you

Tom's gravatar.
Tom said on May 24th, 2008 at 6:18 pm:

I like it very much. There seems to be a typo, though, in the version I got (240508).

Warning: mysql_numrows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in logging/log.class.php on line 105

Thanks a lot!
Tom

alex's gravatar.
alex said on May 24th, 2008 at 10:51 pm:

I am not sure what the problem might be, there is a demo page where I have it installed and working, and I’ve never found any problems.
I’ll check the code to see if there is any sort of problem that might appear in weird cases I haven’t tested yet…

Thanks for the info!
Alex

Vincent van Daal's gravatar.
Vincent van Daal said on August 24th, 2008 at 8:57 pm:

One of the few good logging classes I could find.
And a fantastic one, i’m going to use this one for alot of my projects.
Thanks for this great script!

Roger's gravatar.
Roger said on August 26th, 2008 at 8:25 am:

Is it possible to get a pagination for the log?

I know some ways that can be done for it.

alex's gravatar.
alex said on August 26th, 2008 at 9:36 am:

I will try to add it before the end of this week, since at this moment I’m quite busy.
If you already did it, or are going to do it and you want to share it, attach it in an email to me (alejandro@urbanoalvarez.es) and I will update it in the article with the appropriate links and credit.

Thanks for the idea

Mohamad A's gravatar.
Mohamad A said on September 9th, 2008 at 3:27 pm:

Just download lets see how it goes :)
Thanks.

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