topic Re: User activity logs in Alfresco Forum

User activity logs

zh — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 08:46:32 GMT

Hi,we have faced with the following challenge.Everybody who create a files in Alfresco (we use Community v5.1) can share any accessible documents so for us it is a security breach. My question, how we can 1) monitor; 2) control; and 3) block (if need) this possibility i.e. "Shared" feature of Alfres

Re: User activity logs

cesarista — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 11:09:32 GMT

Hi:

Some guidelines are given in the links below:

1, 2) To monitor and control:

- How to control public shared content in Alfresco - zylk

How to manage public content in Alfresco with the help of virtual folders - Virtual Folders for dealing with public docu…

3) Block --> - More about quick shared functionality in Alfresco - zylk

Finally, the next addon may be helpful for defining some expiration date on published documents.

GitHub - zylklab/zk-qshared-effectivity: Public url documents (qshared) with effectivity in Alfresco Share

Hope this helps.

Regards.

--C.

Re: User activity logs

zh — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 04:07:04 GMT

Hi Cesar,

Firstly, thank you very much for your answer!

I have read the links you provided and I found not information concerning my request but let me note the links is very useful in part how to check aspect of documents.

1. - How to control public shared content in Alfresco - zylk (this article describes how to view document properties and aspects)

2. https://community.alfresco.com/external-link.jspa?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fzylklab%2Fzk-qshared-effectivity (this addon is about shared options not a log information who made share a document last time)

In any way your information is very useful, but let me note I looking a way to monitor user activity log in part - Who set 'Shared' setting of on a document.

Best regards,

Re: User activity logs

cesarista — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 07:49:17 GMT

Hi:

You have to deep inside the links and check them properly. In 1) is talking about qshared model, about monitoring and controlling via custom queries and virtual folders. If you need info about who is sharing, please check qshare:sharedBy property in document details or via Node Browser.

If you need to log this info about the user in catalina.out, you can use the behaviour implemented in the addon as a template to write a line showing the property via logger.warn()

Regards.

--C.

Re: User activity logs

zh — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 11:14:36 GMT

Dear Cesar,

Let me clarify my position. I think it will be inconvenient to check properties of every file in repositories to find who shared those files, also we should to understand that we can get information only about last changes (what if file shared several times by several peoples). So I think we need to catch 'Shared' events in real time to identify who shared a file.

At the current moment our Alfresco system sends to every site participant an information about users' activities (this Alfresco's default behavior and information what I need to get/catch). So I think there is some elegant/effective way to get this information from the database or from the log file BUT yet I do not know how.

Thanks Cesar!

Best regards,

Re: User activity logs

cesarista — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 11:38:17 GMT

Got it, but the general recommendation is NOT to use alfresco database directly, and to use Alfresco API instead.

You can try with Alfresco API Explorer in 5.2, and check the corresponding shared-links related services in new REST-API.

Alfresco Content Services REST API Explorer

http://localhost:8080/alfresco/api/-default-/public/alfresco/versions/1/shared-links

Regards.

--C.

Re: User activity logs

zh — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 12:15:36 GMT

Dear Cesar,

I have another one idea.

What if I make a rule (as a temporary solution) and hang/attach this rule on any folder and sites. This rule will be activates each time when somebody 'Shared' their files. What do you think about this ?

Thanks Cesar!

Best regards,

Re: User activity logs

cesarista — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 12:32:53 GMT

Hi:

And.. where are you going to save the information ? In the repository ? In an external DB ? How are you going to query or consume the data ? Anyway, some messages ago I proposed you to create or modify a "Content behaviour", that it is indeed some kinda of generalization of a "Content rule".

Behaviors/Policies | Alfresco Documentation

Regards.

--C.

Re: User activity logs

zh — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 12:36:44 GMT

Cesar,

I have carefully read the description of Alfresco Content Services REST API and found the following: activities : Retrieve and manage activities BUT

1. This API working with single person ID so it is will be inconvenient to use.

2. For example, if somebody "Shared" a file you need to process a bunch of users to get this information also you need to have a DB to save a previous scan results for comparison.

Best regards,

Re: User activity logs

zh — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 12:46:35 GMT

Cesar,

I think it will be appropriate to send a email message about "Shared" events to special email address which will created for these notifications.

I am sorry for misunderstanding the term "Content behavior". I never meet it before and Alfresco docs also do not contains this sentence/phrase.

Best regards,

Re: User activity logs

zh — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 06:41:53 GMT

Hi Cesar,

can we hire you to do make rule to catch "Shared" events ?

Re: User activity logs

cesarista — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 07:21:37 GMT

Yes, the activities API is not valid for this.

For your rule, it should apply on a given site on modified content that implements some simple Javascript code for checking if aspect qshare:shared is applied. If so, then send a notification.

Regards.

--C.

Re: User activity logs

zh — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 09:26:16 GMT

Hi Cesar, I think this type of task is not simple as seems.

For example if qshare:shared aspect already changed by previous user how we will determine that ? i.e. how we can determine previous state of the qshare:shared aspect ?

So as I thought early we should to search a method which allow us to catch events from logs.

Thanks!

Best regards,