Now that we’re logging activity, let’s create a user-friendly dashboard to view and filter logs using Laravel Blade, Bootstrap, and optional JS enhancements.
🛠 Step 1: Create a route and controller
In routes/web.php:
Route::middleware(['auth', 'can:view-audit-logs'])->group(function () {
Route::get('/audit-logs', [\App\Http\Controllers\AuditLogController::class, 'index'])->name('audit.logs');
});
Generate the controller:
php artisan make:controller AuditLogController
📄 Step 2: Query logs in controller
In AuditLogController.php:
use Spatie\Activitylog\Models\Activity;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
public function index(Request $request)
{
$logs = Activity::with('causer')
->when($request->filled('search'), function ($q) use ($request) {
$q->where('description', 'like', '%' . $request->search . '%');
})
->latest()
->paginate(20);
return view('audit_logs.index', compact('logs'));
}
🧾 Step 3: Create Blade view
In resources/views/audit_logs/index.blade.php:
<x-app-layout>
<x-slot name="header">
<h2 class="font-semibold text-xl">Audit Trail Logs</h2>
</x-slot>
<form method="GET" class="mb-4">
<input name="search" class="border px-2 py-1" placeholder="Search description..." value="{{ request('search') }}">
<button class="bg-blue-500 text-white px-3 py-1 rounded">Search</button>
</form>
<table class="w-full table-auto border-collapse">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="border px-2 py-1">Date</th>
<th class="border px-2 py-1">User</th>
<th class="border px-2 py-1">Description</th>
<th class="border px-2 py-1">Changes</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
@foreach ($logs as $log)
<tr>
<td class="border px-2 py-1">{{ $log->created_at->format('d M Y, H:i') }}</td>
<td class="border px-2 py-1">{{ optional($log->causer)->name ?? 'System' }}</td>
<td class="border px-2 py-1">{{ $log->description }}</td>
<td class="border px-2 py-1 text-sm">
@if ($log->properties)
<strong>Old:</strong> {{ json_encode($log->properties['old'] ?? []) }}<br>
<strong>New:</strong> {{ json_encode($log->properties['attributes'] ?? []) }}
@endif
</td>
</tr>
@endforeach
</tbody>
</table>
<div class="mt-4">
{{ $logs->links() }}
</div>
</x-app-layout>
🔐 Step 4: Add permission check (optional)
Add a Gate in AuthServiceProvider:
Gate::define('view-audit-logs', function ($user) {
return $user->hasRole('admin') || $user->hasPermission('view-audit');
});
✅ Tomorrow (Day 3), we’ll integrate GPT to summarize these logs into human-friendly sentences.
