Getting Started with Integrations

The Integrations module in the WP Activity Log plugin allows you to connect the plugin to external databases, third party services and other components so you can do any of the following:

• Store the WordPress activity log in an external database
• Archive old activity log events in an archive database
• Mirror your websites’ activity log to third party services or a log file

This getting started guide explains how the integrations module work and how you can configure them to better manage your WordPress activity log.

Introduction to third party services & external databases connections

With this module you can connect to other databases other than the WordPress database to store the activity log there and to archive it, and also to third party services to mirror the activity logs. Regardless of the connection type you want to set up and what you want to use it for, the process is always the same. You need to:

1. Create a connection (from the Integrations > Connections tab)
2. Configure the storing, archiving or mirroring to use that connection.

Note that MySQL databases can only be used as an external activity log storage and for archiving. They cannot be used for mirroring. Your website’s activity log can only be mirrored to third party services and log files.

Storing the WordPress activity log in an external database

There are several reasons why you should store the activity log of your WordPress website(s) in an external database, such as:

• Segregation of log data from website data (security)
• Adhering to regulatory compliance rules
• Better manage your WordPress database size (performance, backups etc)

Follow storing the WordPress activity logs in an external database for an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide.

Archiving the WordPress activity log to an external database

Archiving is the process of storing old activity log data in a separate database. There are many reasons why you might need to archive old WordPress activity log data, though mainly one would do it to have a smaller main activity log database, making it more manageable and faster.

Refer to archiving old WordPress activity log data for an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide.

Mirroring the WordPress activity log to third party services & log files

Mirroring of the activity log is a very important feature. It is typically used to:

• Have a secondary copy of the logs
• Send the activity logs of your WordPress site to a central logging solution, so you do not have to check the activity log of every individual website
• You can also stop writing activity logs to the database and restrict log writing to mirror(s) only. While this prevents data redundancy, logs will only be available through the configured mirror(s)

You can mirror the activity log of your WordPress website(s) directly to a log file, and also to a number of third party services such as AWS CloudWatch and Loggly. Refer to mirroring the WordPress activity log to third party services for more information and easy to follow step-by-step guides.