It's Better Than Bad, It's Good!

As much as I'd love to write an article discussing the pros and cons of watching Ren and Stimpy in the 1990's, this article isn't about the parody of Slinky commercials from that cartoon.

It was a fun graphic to lead with, however, since today I'm writing about the WP Activity Log plugin by Melapress.

I've only recently started using this plugin, but so far, so good!

What does it do? Pretty much what it says on the tin - provides logging for WordPress activity. How much logging it does is up to you. Depending on how your site is set up, you can choose from dozens or even hundreds of actions that do or don't get logged.

For example, maybe you only want to keep a log of when users log in. Or log out. Or have a failed login. Or are blocked. And so on.

But it isn't just about logins. You can have nearly any action a user takes added to the log file. Publishing or editing or trashing a post. Modifying widgets. Installing, deactivating or deleting a plugin.

Interactions with comments, categories, other users, themes and many other WordPress options can all be monitored and logged.

Additionally, depending on what plugins you have installed, additional options will be added. For example, if you're using the Redirection plugin, you can log anytime someone creates a new redirection or modifies (or removes) an existing redirection.

The plugin comes with an easy setup wizard that will set up some defaults for you. I prefer to go through and determine which specific items I want logged, so that the listing doesn't get overly full.

Speaking of which, WP Activity Log also allows you to determine how long to keep items in the log file. So if, for example, you have a site with a lot of administrators who will be making frequent changes, you may want to have those log files purge more frequently.

While I've only utilized the free version of the plugin, the premium version does have quite a few features that you may find interesting, including the ability to see who is logged into the site in real time and log anyone out with the click of a button.

So if you like to have an idea of what's going on with your website(s), consider WP Activity Log.

"Everyone wants a log (file)

You're gonna love a log (file)

Come on and get your log (file)"