Tracking users' actions throughout an application in an "activity feed"

README.md

What this does

This is the initial code. Improvements are likely to be had.

• This creates an activity feed that can track updates, destroys, creates in a MySQL database.
• This is inspired by part of the "public_activity" gem.
• For Updates, what changed will be automatically stored as a hash.
• Bootstrap's usage is assumed, as is Devise's "current_user". ActiveRecord must be used as well. These can easily be changed however.

How to use it

• The migration should be placed as a normal migration in the migrations folder and the activity.rb in the models folder. This will be the base of the work
• base_model.rb should also be placed in the model folder and anything you would like to track should extend this model. This will default the tracking of updates, creates, and destroys.
• 2 ERB snippets are included to help with rendering nice views. The see_more.js.coffee should be included to make the "see more" buttons on updates work.
• You can track custom events by including an activity call. Activity.register_activity(User.current_user, self, "changed their password", User.current_ip_address). The second arugment is what you are changing, the third argument is an action (or what happened).
• Include a partial render call in a view you want to see the activity list <%= render "activities/activities", activities: current_user.activities %>. Note that the ERB templates are placed within an activities folder in the views directory.
• Below are some snippets that also need to be added.

In user.rb

This snippet is a way to make the current_user and the ip address available to all models and callbacks for the current thread.

  class << self
    def current_user=(user)
      Thread.current[:current_user] = user
    end

    def current_user
      Thread.current[:current_user]
    end

    def current_ip_address=(ip)
      Thread.current[:current_ip_address] = ip
    end

    def current_ip_address
      Thread.current[:current_ip_address]
    end
  end

In application_controller.rb

This snippet will set the current_user and ip_address for the current thread on every request.

  before_filter :set_current_user_and_ip
  def set_current_user_and_ip
    User.current_user = current_user
    User.current_ip_address = request.remote_ip
  end

How it will look

What is each file for?

_activities.html.erb

A simple helper that renders the activities

_activity.html.erb

What rails will render when you call render activity or render activities

activity.rb

The activity class, basic model with a class method to register an activity. This method is not necessary, but helps readability.

base_model.rb

The magic class. This handles some callbacks to register activities on updates, creates and destroys. Subclass this for any model you would like to track.

activities_helper.rb

Just some view helpers for keywords in the view, the icons, and using "a" vs "an"

migrations.rb

Migration to add the activity model.

see_more.js.coffee

Handles clicking the see more link in _activity.html.erb

_activities.html.erb

<div class="page-header">
  <h1>Recent Activity</h1>
</div>

<ul class="media-list">
  <%= render activities %>
</ul>

_activity.html.erb

<li class="media">
  <a class="media-left" href="#">
    <span class="glyphicon <%= glyphicon_class_for_action(activity.action) %>" style="font-size: 30px;"></span>
  </a>
  <div class="media-body">
    <h4 class="media-heading">
      <%= activity.owner.name %> <%= activity.action %> <%= key_word_for_activity(activity.trackable_type, current_user) %>
      <small><%= distance_of_time_in_words_to_now(activity.created_at) %> ago from <%= activity.ip_address %></small>
    </h4>
    <% if activity.parameters.present? %>
      <a href="#changes-<%= activity.id %>" data-id="<%=activity.id%>" class="see-more" data-shown="false">See More...</a>
      <div class="changes hide" id="changes-<%= activity.id %>">
        <% activity.parameters.each do |key, value| %>
          <dl>
            <dt><%= key.humanize %></dt>
            <dd><%= value.humanize %></dd>
          </dl>
        <% end %>
      </div>
    <% end %>
  </div>
</li>

activities_helper.rb

# This is used in the views to help show the optimal view output
module ActivitiesHelper
  def key_word_for_activity(trackable_type, current_user)
    if ["User"].include?(trackable_type)
      ""
    elsif current_user.role_type == trackable_type
      "their profile"
    else
      indefinite_articlerize(trackable_type)
    end
  end

  def glyphicon_class_for_action(action)
    if action == "updated"
      "glyphicon-repeat"
    elsif action == "created"
      "glyphicon-asterisk"
    elsif action == "deleted"
      "glyphicon-remove"
    elsif action == "changed their password"
      "glyphicon-lock"
    else
      "glyphicon-question-sign"
    end
  end

  def indefinite_articlerize(params_word)
    %w(a e i o u).include?(params_word[0].downcase) ? "an #{params_word}" : "a #{params_word}"
  end
end

activity.rb

class Activity < ActiveRecord::Base
  default_scope { order(created_at: :desc) }
  belongs_to :owner, :polymorphic => true
  belongs_to :trackable, :polymorphic => true

  serialize :parameters, Hash

  def self.register_activity(user, trackable, action, ip_address, params={})
    act = Activity.new
    act.trackable = trackable
    act.owner = user
    act.action = action
    act.parameters = params
    act.ip_address = ip_address
    act.save
  end
end

base_model.rb

# Everything should extend this file that you want to track
class BaseModel < ActiveRecord::Base
  self.abstract_class = true
  has_one :activity, as: :trackable

  before_validation(on: :update) do
    if self.changes.present?
      Activity.register_activity(User.current_user, self, "updated", User.current_ip_address, action_params)
    end
    true # don't stop the update if logging fails!
  end

  after_create do
    Activity.register_activity(User.current_user, self, "created", User.current_ip_address)
    true
  end

  after_destroy do
    Activity.register_activity(User.current_user, self, "deleted", User.current_ip_address)
    true
  end

  private

  def action_params
    changes = {}
    self.changes.each do |key, change|
      changes[key] = "changed the value for #{key} from \"#{change.first}\" to \"#{change.last}\"" if valid_key?(key) && change.first != change.last
    end
    changes
  end

  def valid_key?(key)
    !["encrypted_password", "created_at", "updated_at"].include?(key) # add more here as you come across them.
  end
end

migrations.rb

class CreateActivities < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :activities do |t|
      t.references :trackable, polymorphic: true, index: true
      t.references :owner, polymorphic: true, index: true
      t.string :action
      t.string :ip_address
      t.text :parameters
      t.timestamps
    end
  end
end

see_more.js.coffee

$(document).on "ready page:load", ->
  $('.see-more').on "click", ->
    id = $(this).data("id")
    shown = $(this).data("shown")
    changes_id = "#changes-#{id}"

    if shown
      $(changes_id).addClass("hide")
      $(this).data("shown", false)
      $(this).text("See More...")
    else
      $(changes_id).removeClass("hide")
      $(this).data("shown", true)
      $(this).text("See Less...")