Best ways to track user activities in my ASP.NET Core app

Question

Currently, to track user activities, I create custom

filter attribute which based on ResultFilterAttribute. It's worked for me, but I want to know if there is no better way to perform this? Because, the documentation of .NET Core filter recommends "avoid creating and using filters purely for logging purposes."

Please give me your opinion.

My Custom Attribute

public class ActivitiesAttribute : ResultFilterAttribute
{
private string _description;
public ActivitiesAttribute(string description)
{
_description = description;
}
public override Task OnResultExecutionAsync(ResultExecutingContext context, ResultExecutionDelegate next)
{
Debug.WriteLine($"===User : {context.HttpContext.User.Identity.Name}, description : {_description}, Date {DateTime.Now.ToString()}");
return base.OnResultExecutionAsync(context, next);
}
}

My Controller

[Authorize]
public class ProductsController : Controller
{
private readonly ApplicationDbContext _context;
public ProductsController(ApplicationDbContext context)
{
_context = context;
}
// GET: Products
[Activities("Products List")]
public async Task<IActionResult> Index()
{
return View(await _context.Products.ToListAsync());
}
// GET: Products/Details/5
[Activities("Product Detail")]
public async Task<IActionResult> Details(int? id)
{
if(id == null)
{
return NotFound();
}
var product = await _context.Products
.FirstOrDefaultAsync(m => m.Id == id);
if(product == null)
{
return NotFound();
}
return View(product);
}
// GET: Products/Create
[Activities("Product Creation")]
public IActionResult Create()
{
return View();
}
....
}

Ibrahim Siddique · Answer

if you are going to host your app on Azure the Application insight is one of the good way to do that even you can log the custom logging or you can go with Log4Net and store the logs in text file. Even this can be a good solution as per your requiremnt (but here the challage is as you are saving value in flat file finding the logs will be an challage )

neeraj sajwan · Answer

public class AuditAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute { private readonly DbContext _context; public AuditAttribute(DbContext context) { _context = context; } public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext) { var request = filterContext.HttpContext.Request; ActivityLog audit = new ActivityLog() { Id = Guid.NewGuid(), UserName = filterContext.HttpContext.User.Identity.Name, // The IP Address of the Request IPAddress = filterContext.HttpContext.Connection.LocalIpAddress.MapToIPv4().ToString(), // The URL that was accessed AreaAccessed = ((ControllerBase)filterContext.Controller).ControllerContext.ActionDescriptor.ControllerName + "/" + ((ControllerBase)filterContext.Controller).ControllerContext.ActionDescriptor.ActionName, // filterContext.RouteData.Values["controller"].ToString(),// Timestamp = DateTime.UtcNow }; _context.UserActivity.Add(audit); _context.SaveChanges(); base.OnActionExecuting(filterContext); } } then use [ServiceFilter(typeof(AuditAttribute))] above the controller method like [ServiceFilter(typeof(AuditAttribute))] public async Task Register() { }

Othman Bahnous · Answer

In any DBMS there is something called "Audit", Auditing is tracking and logging events that occur on the Database Engine so all the history will captured, but as you said changing the database may cause a problem...

Margaal · Answer

It's a good idea to avoid using filters, but I do not want to depend on the database management system. Because the DBMS could change. I also wonder if with the triggers I could know the user who performs the action. Because the ultimate goal is to present the history of activities and login to the admin of the company to which the app belongs. Thanks

Othman Bahnous · Answer

If you want to track actions on the database you Can Do it on database side using triggers i think is better...