Today we are excited to announce version 3.3 of WP Activity Log. This version update has several new features and improvements, and the ones we are really excited about are:
- Mirroring WordPress activity logs to Slack
- All new external database and services UI and functionality.
In this update we have focused on the integration of the activity log with other tools and services. WP Activity Log is used by thousands of large businesses businesses from the financial, healthcare, education and other industries. Large businesses have these type of requirements, such as ability to mirror the logs in their central logging system etc.
Let’s dive into the highlights of this exciting update of the most comprehensive activity log plugin for WordPress.
Mirroring WordPress Activity Logs to Slack
Slack has become really popular with teams because with it they can have one central source of information about everything that is happening on their networks, applications and services they use.
Now, WP Activity Log users can mirror the activity log of their WordPress sites to a channel on Slack. Setting up the mirroring of activity logs to Slack is really simple and will only take you two minutes. Also, when configuring the mirroring the users can also configure filters to specify which of the event types should be reported to their Slack channel.
New UI for the External Databases & Services Integration Module
In this update we gave the UI of the External Databases and Services Integration module a face lift, making it much easier to use. We have also changed the concept of how connections are setup etc. So with the new interface you can:
- Configure multiple mirroring destinations
- Better manage all the archiving and mirroring connections
- Test the connection status with just a click of a button.
Refer to our Setting up external database and services connections in the WordPress activity log plugin for more detailed information on how these features work.
Mirroring WordPress Activity Logs to a Remote Syslog Server
In previous versions of the plugin you could only mirror the WordPress activity log to the local syslog, i.e. the one running on the web server where the website is hosted. From this version onward you can mirror the WordPress activity log to a remote syslog server.
We have also mapped the severity of the WordPress activity log events to the severity levels in syslog, making things much easier and standard.
Improved Users Sessions Management
In this update we have improved the WordPress users sessions management module, specifically the feature that limits multiple users sessions. WordPress clears users sessions data once every 24 hours, so there were cases where a user’s session was expired, yet they were not allowed to login because there was still session data.
The plugin has now been optimized to handle such situations. The plugin now also checks the session status, so it no longer locks out users whose session is expired.
New Configurable Maximum File Size for File Integrity Scanner
In previous versions of the plugin, the WordPress site file integrity scanner was restricted to only scan files that are smaller than 5MB. From this update onward WordPress site admins can now configure the maximum file size themselves, giving them more flexibility to scan any files they need.
Major Performance Improvement of the Activity Log Plugin
In this version update we also worked on a major performance improvement. Now the plugin is more than 50% faster, hence it requires much less resources to run. We have also segregate the activity log event IDs used to keep track of activity from non-logged in users, such as requesting non-existing URLs. By segregating these type of events you can now disable them altogether, from the Enable / Disable Events section.
Breaking Change – Old Premium Add-Ons No Longer Supported
In the beginning of this year we have switched to a new licensing model. We stopped selling the old premium add-ons and switched to a single premium version. This allowed us to better manage the code and introduce more features. When we announced the new licensing model we also sent an email to all paying customers with information on how to migrate to the new edition of WP Activity Log. If you still have not migrated, you might encounter problems. If you do, contact us.
Other Improvements & Bug Fixes
Like with any other plugin update we have also fixed a few bugs and added some other minor improvements. Refer to the activity log plugin change log for a more detailed list of what is new, improved and fixed in this update of WP Activity Log, the most comprehensive WordPress activity log plugin.