audit-migration.md

Audit Migration

While the package comes with a pretty standard migration file which covers most use cases, the default table schema might not be suitable for everyone.

With that in mind, here are a few tweaks that can be performed.

Using a different column name for the User ID/Type

Instead of the typical user_id column, a different name can be used:

$table->nullableMorphs('owner');

Just make sure the morph_prefix value in the configuration is also updated, to reflect the change:

return [
    'user' = [
        'morph_prefix' => 'owner',
    ],
];

{tip} Read more about this in the General Configuration section.

UUID over auto-incrementing ids

Some developers prefer to use a UUID instead of auto-incrementing ids. If that's the case, make sure to update the up() method like so:

For the User, change from

$table->nullableMorphs('user');

to

$table->uuid('user_id')->nullable();
$table->string('user_type')->nullable();
$table->index([
    'user_id', 
    'user_type',
]);

For the Auditable model, change from

$table->morphs('auditable');

to

$table->uuid('auditable_id');
$table->string('auditable_type');
$table->index([
    'auditable_id', 
    'auditable_type',
]);

{note} Make sure the user_* and/or auditable_* column types match the ones used in their respective tables.

Values with more than 255 characters

Sometimes, the URL, Tags or User Agent values may be longer than 255 characters, so the corresponding columns should be updated from string

$table->string('url')->nullable();
$table->string('user_agent')->nullable();
$table->string('tags')->nullable();

to text

$table->text('url')->nullable();
$table->text('user_agent')->nullable();
$table->text('tags')->nullable();

{note} From version 4.1.3 onward, the default migration creates the url column as text instead of string.

JSON WHERE() clauses

Given the Query Builder supports querying JSON columns, the old_values and new_values column types can be updated from text

$table->text('old_values')->nullable();
$table->text('new_values')->nullable();

to json

$table->json('old_values')->nullable();
$table->json('new_values')->nullable();

This will provide an additional way to filter Audit data.

{tip} Not all RDBMS support this feature, so check before making any changes.