# django-unique-audit
[](https://pypi.org/project/django-unique-audit/)

An app that creates a unique django audit log across multiple instances.
It aims to provide consistent audit logs even on different DBs.
This project was developed based on [django-easy-audit](https://github.com/soynatan/django-easy-audit).
## Quickstart
1. Install Django Unique Audit by running `pip install django-unique-audit`.
*Alternatively, you can download the [latest release](https://github.com/yeongbin-jo/django-unique-audit/releases) from GitHub, unzip it, and place the folder 'unique_audit' in the root of your project.*
2. Add 'unique_audit' to your `INSTALLED_APPS` like this:
```python
INSTALLED_APPS = [
...
'unique_audit',
]
```
3. Add Unique Audit's middleware to your `MIDDLEWARE` (or `MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES`) setting like this:
```python
MIDDLEWARE = (
...
'unique_audit.middleware.unique_audit.UniqueAuditMiddleware',
)
```
4. Run `python manage.py migrate unique_audit` to create the app's models.
5. That's it! Now every CRUD event on your whole project will be registered in the audit models, which you will be able to query from the Django admin app. Additionally, this app will also log all authentication events and all URLs requested.
## Settings
For an exhaustive list of available settings, please [check our wiki](https://github.com/yeongbin-jo/django-unique-audit/wiki/Settings).
Below are some of the settings you may want to use. These should be defined in your project's `settings.py` file:
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_WATCH_MODEL_EVENTS`
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_WATCH_AUTH_EVENTS`
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_WATCH_REQUEST_EVENTS`
Set these to `False` to stop logging model, authentication, and/or request events.
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_UNREGISTERED_CLASSES_EXTRA`
A list of Django models which will be ignored by Django Unique Audit.
Use it to prevent logging one or more of your project's models.
List items can be classes or strings with `app_name.model_name` format.
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_UNREGISTERED_URLS_EXTRA`
A list of URLs which will be ignored by Django Unique Audit.
List items are expected to be regular expressions that
will be matched against the URL path.
[Check our wiki](https://github.com/yeongbin-jo/django-unique-audit/wiki/Settings#request-auditing)
for more details on how to use it.
* `DJANGO_Unique_AUDIT_CRUD_DIFFERENCE_CALLBACKS`
May point to a list of callables/string-paths-to-functions-classes in which the application code can determine
on a per CRUDEvent whether or not the application chooses to create the CRUDEvent or not. This is different
from the registered/unregistered settings (e.g. `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_UNREGISTERED_CLASSES_EXTRA`).
This is meant to be for dynamic configurations where the application
may inspect the current save/create/delete and choose whether or not to save that into the database or ignore it.
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_USER_DB_CONSTRAINT`
Default is `True`. This is reserved for future use (does not do anything yet). The functionality provided by the
setting (whether enabled or disabled) could be handled more explicitly in certain
code paths (or even internally as custom model managers). For projects that separate the unique audit database, such
that the tables are not on the same database as the user table, this could help with making certain queries easier.
Again, this doesn't do anything yet, and if it ever does, the version will be increased and the README will be
updated accordingly. If you keep your database together (the standard usage), you have nothing to worry about.
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_CRUD_EVENT_LIST_FILTER`
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_LOGIN_EVENT_LIST_FILTER`
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_REQUEST_EVENT_LIST_FILTER`
Changeview filters configuration.
Used to remove filters when the corresponding list of data would be too long.
Defaults are:
- ['event_type', 'content_type', 'user', 'datetime', ] for CRUDEventAdmin
- ['login_type', 'user', 'datetime', ] for LoginEventAdmin
- ['method', 'user', 'datetime', ] for RequestEventAdmin
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_DATABASE_ALIAS`
By default it is the Django `default` database alias. But for projects that have split databases,
this is necessary in order to keep database atomicity concerns in check during signal handlers.
To clarify, this is only _truly_ necessary for the model signals.
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_CRUD_EVENT_NO_CHANGED_FIELDS_SKIP`
By default this is `False`, but this allows the calling project not to save `CRUDEvent` if the changed fields as
determined by the `pre_save` handler sees that there are no changed fields. We are keeping it off by default so that
projects that wish to use this (potentially less `CRUDEvent`) can choose to turn it on! And those that do not want it (yet or ever),
or those that do not closely follow the release notes of this project will have one less worry when upgrading.
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_READONLY_EVENTS`
Default is `False`. The events visible through the admin interface are editable by default by a
superuser. Set this to `True` if you wish to make the recorded events read-only through the admin
UI.
* `DJANGO_UNIQUE_AUDIT_LOGGING_BACKEND`
A pluggable backend option for logging. Defaults to `unique_audit.backends.ModelBackend`.
This class expects to have 3 methods:
* `login(self, login_info_dict):`
* `crud(self, crud_info_dict):`
* `request(self, request_info_dict):`
each of these methods accept a dictionary containing the info regarding the event.
example overriding:
```python
import logging
class PythonLoggerBackend:
logging.basicConfig()
logger = logging.getLogger('your-kibana-logger')
logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
def request(self, request_info):
return request_info # if you don't need it
def login(self, login_info):
self.logger.info(msg='your message', extra=login_info)
return login_info
def crud(self, crud_info):
self.logger.info(msg='your message', extra=crud_info)
return crud_info
```
## What does it do
Django Unique Audit uses [Django signals](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/signals/)
to listen to the events happening in your project, such as when a user creates, updates or deletes
a registry. This applies to every model of every app in your project.
When any of these events takes place, Django Unique Audit will log it in the model `CRUDEvent`.
You can query this information in the Django Admin app.
Besides logging CRUD events, Django Unique Audit will log all authentication events (such as when a user logs in, out, or fails to log in) and all the URLs requested in the project. This information is stored in models `LoginEvent` and `RequestEvent`.
## Why you should use it
There are many Django auditing apps out there, but most them require you to change very important
parts of your project's code. For example, they require you to add fields to your models, or make
them inherit from a certain class. Some of them create a mirror for each of your models, which means
duplicate migrations.
It is not that they don't work or that they are not great apps. But in case you need something
easier to set up, and you don't want your code to depend so much on a third-party app, Django Unique Audit
may be your best choice.
The good thing about this app is that it doesn't get in the way. It is [easy and quick to install](https://github.com/soynatan/django-unique-audit/wiki/Installation), and it
begins logging everything right away, without you having to inject code anywhere in your project.
## More
Thanks to original committer [@soynatan](https://twitter.com/soynatan).