We’ve been planning and developing this feature for quite some time, and now finally it is here: SMS notifications in the WP Activity Log plugin.
WP Activity Log was the first activity log plugin to fully support WordPress multisite networks. It was also the first activity log plugin that had reports, email notifications, and could keep a comprehensive log of WooCommerce products and store changes.
With today’s release, the WP Activity Log plugin is again the first! The first activity log plugin that sends SMS notifications when critical changes happen on a WordPress site. Read this post for more information on what is new and improved in version 3.4 of the WP Activity Log plugin.
SMS Notifications In the WordPress Activity Log
The WP Security Audit log plugin has had email notifications since the beginning. Email notifications are good to have. However, they are not instant and as reliable as SMS messages. They tend to slip through your inbox.
If you want to be instantly alerted of a change or a user action, SMS notifications are the way to go. If someone from an exotic location logs in to your WordPress site outside office hours, using an administrator account, you want to be instantly alerted, even if it is the middle of the night. Hence why we added SMS notifications in the plugin.
You can enable any of the built-in notifications or create your own notification criteria to receive SMS messages. The SMS message template is editable and you can shorten the URLs in the messages with Bit.ly, which is also supported out of the box. The WP Activity Log plugin sends SMS notifications via the Twilio service.
For more detailed information refer to configuring SMS and email notifications in the WordPress activity log.
Better Coverage Of WordPress Changes
In this release we’ve also focused on improving the coverage of the plugin. Prior to this update, the plugin had somewhat limited coverage of site changes that were not done directly via the WordPress admin pages.
So we enhanced the plugin’s sensors and now the plugin keeps a log of changes done via third party customization. If you are using custom code or applications that automatically apply changes to your site, or you do site changes via them instead of the admin pages, the plugin will keep a log of such changes.
Other Plugin Update Improvements
In this release we have also included quite a few plugin functionality improvements as well. Here is a high level overview of what has been improved:
- New event ID 1008 to keep a log of user switching (support for User Switching plugin).
- New event ID 9083 to keep a log of a user’s billing address (WooCommerce).
- New event ID 9084 to keep a log of a user’s shipping address (WooCommerce activity log).
- Added several new pre-configured SMS & Email notifications.
- Optimized the database queries that retrieve the list of logged in users.
- Optimized some metadata database queries (reduced queries by 75%).
- Removed the limit of 5 criteria in the notifications trigger builder.
For a complete list of what is new, improved and also fixed in update 3.4 refer to the WP Activity Log plugin change log.
Update WP Activity Log Now!
That’s the latest WP Activity Log update for you. We have included another must-have WordPress admin tool in the plugin, drastically improved the coverage of the WordPress activity logs, and improved a lot of existing features. Update your install to benefit from these features.
We are always happy to hear the users’ feedback. So if you do have any feedback, questions or comments get in touch with us. And if you’ve been using the plugin for quite a while and found it useful, please rate it.