Filament Activity Logs: THREE Packages [Comparison Review]

Building an admin panel usually requires some form of logging. This means you must log every change or create actions on your application. The question is - how do you do this with Filament? You have a few package options, so let's look at them.

In this tutorial, we will look at 3 different Filament logging packages and compare them. We will look at:

• https://filamentphp.com/plugins/z3d0x-logger
• https://filamentphp.com/plugins/pxlrbt-activity-log
• https://filamentphp.com/plugins/noxoua-activity-log

Package 1: z3d0x/filament-logger

Installing this package is pretty easy:

composer require z3d0x/filament-logger

Then we run the installation command:

php artisan filament-logger:install

Before going deeper - we have to prepare our Models using Spatie documentation:

Model

use Spatie\Activitylog\Traits\LogsActivity;
 
// ...
 
use LogsActivity;
 
// ...
 
public function getActivitylogOptions(): LogOptions
{
    return LogOptions::defaults()
        ->logFillable();
}

Last, we have to add a Resource to our PanelProvider:

app/Providers/Filament/AdminPanelProvider.php

public function panel(Panel $panel): Panel
{
    return $panel
        // ...
        ->resources([
            config('filament-logger.activity_resource')
        ])
        // ...
}

That's it. If we open our Panel, we will see a new Activity Log resource in the Sidebar. Opening it after we have made some changes to our Model, we will see the following:

This table has all the filters to quickly find a resource we need. And if we click on the row - we can see all the details:

That's it! We have working logs now. And here's what we think about this package:

The Good

• Easy to install
• Gives all the information that you want
• Good table filters
• Nice UI
• Works out of the box with all models
• Easy to customize, as you can override the Resource for logs and implement anything you need

The Bad

• Requires database columns to match the labels. If there's a mismatch - it might get confusing
• Does not have many out-of-the-box configuration options

Overall

If we look at this from the perspective of having something in our application - we have a strong candidate here. While it might not be the best on our list, it works well.

Package 2: pxlrbt/filament-activity-log

This package is a little harder to install as we must create a new page. Still, it starts with a simple installation of the Spatie Activity Log and Activity Log package:

composer require spatie/laravel-activitylog
composer require pxlrbt/filament-activity-log

Then, we have to first prepare our Models using Spatie documentation:

Model

use Spatie\Activitylog\Traits\LogsActivity;
 
// ...
 
use LogsActivity;
 
// ...
 
public function getActivitylogOptions(): LogOptions
{
    return LogOptions::defaults()
        ->logFillable();
}

Next, we need to create a new page for our Activity Log:

php artisan make:filament-page ActivityLogPage --resource=CustomerResource --type=custom

Then we have to modify that page:

app/Filament/Resources/CustomerResource/Pages/ActivityLogPage.php

use pxlrbt\FilamentActivityLog\Pages\ListActivities;
 
// ...
 
class ActivityLogPage extends Page
class ActivityLogPage extends ListActivities
{
    protected static string $resource = CustomerResource::class;
 
    protected static string $view = 'filament.resources.customer-resource.pages.activity-log-page';
}

And last, we have to add a button to our Resource to link to this page, along with URL registration:

app/Filament/Resources/CustomerResource/CustomerResource.php

// ...
 
->actions([
    Tables\Actions\EditAction::make(),
    Tables\Actions\Action::make('activities')->url(fn($record) => CustomerResource::getUrl('activities', ['record' => $record])),
// ...
 
public static function getPages(): array
{
    return [
        'index' => Pages\ListCustomers::route('/'),
        'create' => Pages\CreateCustomer::route('/create'),
        'edit' => Pages\EditCustomer::route('/{record}/edit'),
        'activities' => Pages\ActivityLogPage::route('/{record}/activities'),
    ];
}
 
// ...

Now, visiting our table, we should see a new button:

This will open our Resource activity log page:

That's it. It does work fine, and here are our thoughts:

The Good

• Average installation complexity
• Gives you a nice page for specific Model logs
• Gives us a Restore button that will restore the Model to the state of the log - the only one that did this!
• Works quite well overall and displays changes in a readable format

The Bad

• Has some UI issues (as seen in the screenshot)
• Does not have many out-of-the-box configuration options
• Requires your users to have an Avatar (we did not have one, so it caused an error)

Overall

This package is a good candidate for your project if you want per-resource-based logs. This means that you are okay with creating each resource log individually. It also has a great feature of restoring the Model to the state of the log, which is a great feature to have.

Package 3: noxoua/filament-activity-log

To install this package, we have to run the following command:

composer require noxoua/filament-activity-log

Then we have optional commands to publish the config and views:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="filament-activity-log-config"
php artisan vendor:publish --tag="filament-activity-log-views"
php artisan vendor:publish --tag="filament-activity-log-translations"

While not required, they will allow you to modify the package to your needs. Next, we have to add a new page:

php artisan make:filament-page ViewActivityLog

This page should not belong to any resources, as it's a custom global page. So we have to modify it:

app/Filament/Pages/ViewActivityLog.php

use Noxo\FilamentActivityLog\Pages\ListActivities;
 
// ...
 
class ViewActivityLog extends Page
class ViewActivityLog extends ListActivities
{
    protected static ?string $navigationIcon = 'heroicon-o-document-text';
 
    protected static string $view = 'filament.pages.view-activity-lo';
}

Next, we have to create a logger:

php artisan make:filament-logger CustomerLogger

And modify it:

app/Filament/Loggers/CustomerLogger.php

class CustomerLogger extends Logger
{
    public static ?string $model = Customer::class;
 
    public static function getLabel(): string|Htmlable|null
    {
        return CustomerResource::getModelLabel();
    }
 
    public static function resource(ResourceLogger $logger): ResourceLogger
    {
        return $logger
            ->fields([
                // Here you have to define all of your fields to be logged
                Field::make('employee.name'),
                Field::make('first_name'),
                Field::make('last_name'),
                Field::make('email'),
                Field::make('phone_number'),
                Field::make('description'),
                Field::make('lead_source_id'),
                Field::make('tags'),
                Field::make('pipeline_stage_id'),
            ])
            ->relationManagers([
                //
            ]);
    }
}

Now, once this is done, we can create and update the Model to see the logs:

Next, if we want to filter to a specific record, we can use the filter at the top:

That's it. We have logs now. Here are our thoughts:

The Good

• It's highly customizable
• Has great search capabilities
• Can be user-friendly if you tinker with it
• Has a nice UI

The Bad

• Requires a lot of manual work to set up - you have to create loggers for each of the resources and define all the fields to be logged
• Displays all entries in a single table, which can be confusing at first

Overall

Looking at this package, it's a great package. It's highly customizable and has a lot of potential. But it requires a lot of manual work to set up and make it work exactly as you might need.

What to Pick?

Since activity logs are highly customizable, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. But we can give you some pointers on what to pick:

Do you need something fast and easy? Pick z3d0x/filament-logger. It's easy to install and works out of the box.

Do you need something that will give you per-resource logs? Pick pxlrbt/filament-activity-log. It's easy to install and gives you an excellent page for each resource.

Do you need something that will give you a lot of customization? Pick noxoua/filament-activity-log. It's highly customizable and has a lot of potential.