Creating a Reusable Trait for Logging User Activities in Laravel Models

In real-world Laravel applications, it's common to need to know who made what changes to which record. In this post, we'll build a reusable Trait that automatically logs basic actions (create, update, delete) for any model that uses it.

Step-by-Step Implementation

1. Create the activity_logs table

php artisan make:migration create_activity_logs_table

In the migration file:

Schema::create('activity_logs', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->id();
    $table->string('model_type');
    $table->unsignedBigInteger('model_id');
    $table->string('action');
    $table->unsignedBigInteger('user_id')->nullable();
    $table->json('changes')->nullable();
    $table->timestamps();
});

Then run:

php artisan migrate

1. Create the ActivityLog model

php artisan make:model ActivityLog

// app/Models/ActivityLog.php
class ActivityLog extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = [
        'model_type', 'model_id', 'action', 'user_id', 'changes'
    ];

    protected $casts = [
        'changes' => 'array',
    ];
}

1. Create the reusable Trait

mkdir app/Traits
touch app/Traits/LogsActivity.php

// app/Traits/LogsActivity.php
namespace App\Traits;

use App\Models\ActivityLog;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

trait LogsActivity
{
    public static function bootLogsActivity()
    {
        static::created(function ($model) {
            $model->logActivity('created');
        });

        static::updated(function ($model) {
            $model->logActivity('updated');
        });

        static::deleted(function ($model) {
            $model->logActivity('deleted');
        });
    }

    public function logActivity($action)
    {
        ActivityLog::create([
            'model_type' => get_class($this),
            'model_id' => $this->id,
            'action' => $action,
            'user_id' => Auth::id(),
            'changes' => $this->getChanges(),
        ]);
    }
}

1. Use it in any model Just import the Trait:

use App\Traits\LogsActivity;

class Post extends Model
{
    use LogsActivity;
    // ...
}

Final Notes
With this simple trait, you can automatically track basic activities on any model. You can easily extend it to support soft deletes, filtering, custom actions, or role-based access.

Comments

[Dimitri Mostrey]

A bit confused here. Using the trait logs any DB changes by simply adding it to the Model? Maybe bootLogsActivity() is a Laravel functionality I never heard of. Or it 'boots' the LogsActivity every time the Model is called. Can you elaborate a little bit how this codes automatically logs DB changes as user activity. Or does it need an additional call?

If it works as is, I salute you. Something to study today.

[Eduar Bastidas]

Hi Dimitri,

Yes, simply add the trait to the model and you're all set. There's no need to manually invoke anything or perform any extra "booting."

How does it work so "automagically?"

Convention: boot{TraitName}

When an Eloquent model is loaded, Laravel iterates through all the traits used by the class and searches for a static method named boot{TraitName}.

• The core handles this within Model::bootTraits(), where it calls bootLogsActivity (or others) during the model's boot cycle.

You can see an example from Laravel itself, such as with SoftDeletes.

You can also read more information and a more detailed explanation here.

[david duymelinck]

Check Spatie Logging activity if you want more well rounded activity logging features.
But the trait is not much different than the one in this post.

[Dotallio]

Super useful approach! I’ve been looking for a clean way to add activity logs across models without repeating myself - are there any gotchas when using this with soft deletes or mass updates?