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Installation and Setup

This guide will help you install and set up the Admin Audit Trail module on your Drupal site.

Requirements

Core Requirements

  • Drupal 10 or 11
  • PHP 8.3 or higher

Required Drupal Core Modules

Different sub-modules may require specific Drupal core modules:

  • Comment module - Required for Admin Audit Trail Comment
  • Media module - Required for Admin Audit Trail Media
  • Workflows module - Required for Admin Audit Trail Workflows

Optional Contributed Modules

Some sub-modules require contributed modules:

Installation Methods

composer require drupal/admin_audit_trail
drush en admin_audit_trail

Method 2: Using Drush

If the module is already downloaded:

drush en admin_audit_trail

To enable specific sub-modules:

drush en admin_audit_trail_node admin_audit_trail_user admin_audit_trail_auth

Method 3: Manual Installation

  1. Download the module from Drupal.org
  2. Extract the archive to your modules/contrib directory
  3. Navigate to Administration > Extend (/admin/modules)
  4. Find "Admin Audit Trail" in the module list
  5. Check the box next to "Admin Audit Trail"
  6. Check boxes for any desired sub-modules
  7. Click "Install" at the bottom of the page
  8. Clear the site cache

Quick Start Installation

For most sites, we recommend enabling these essential sub-modules:

# Enable the base module
drush en admin_audit_trail

# Enable core tracking modules
drush en admin_audit_trail_auth      # User authentication tracking
drush en admin_audit_trail_user      # User account tracking
drush en admin_audit_trail_node      # Content tracking

# Clear cache
drush cr

Enabling Sub-modules

Admin Audit Trail uses a modular architecture. The base module provides the framework, while sub-modules track specific entity types.

Via Drush

Enable all authentication and user tracking: 

drush en admin_audit_trail_auth admin_audit_trail_user admin_audit_trail_user_roles

Enable content tracking: 

drush en admin_audit_trail_node admin_audit_trail_comment admin_audit_trail_media

Via UI

  1. Navigate to Administration > Extend (/admin/modules)
  2. Search for "Admin Audit Trail"
  3. Enable the base module if not already enabled
  4. Enable desired sub-modules:
  5. Expand the "Admin Audit Trail" section
  6. Check boxes for sub-modules you want to enable
  7. Click "Install"

Verifying Installation

After installation, verify that the module is working:

  1. Navigate to Administration > Reports > Audit Trail (/admin/reports/audit-trail)
  2. You should see the audit trail page (it may be empty if no tracked events have occurred yet)
  3. Perform a tracked action (e.g., edit a user account if admin_audit_trail_user is enabled)
  4. Refresh the audit trail page to see the logged event

Initial Configuration

After installation, you may want to configure these settings:

  1. Set Permissions
  2. Navigate to Administration > People > Permissions (/admin/people/permissions)
  3. Grant "Access Admin Audit Trail" to appropriate roles

  4. Grant "Configure Admin Audit Trail" to administrators only

  5. Configure Settings (Optional)

  6. Navigate to Administration > Configuration > Development > Admin Audit Trail Settings (/admin/config/development/audit-trail/settings)
  7. Set log retention limits

  8. Configure filter display preferences

  9. Enable Cron (For log rotation)

  10. Ensure your site's cron is running regularly
  11. This is required for automatic log cleanup based on retention settings

What Happens After Installation?

Once you enable a sub-module, it immediately begins logging events:

  • No additional configuration required - Logging starts automatically
  • Logs are stored in the database - In the admin_audit_trail table
  • View logs at any time - Visit /admin/reports/audit-trail
  • Logs persist until manually deleted - Or until automatic cleanup runs (if configured)

For Compliance and Security Auditing

drush en admin_audit_trail_auth \
         admin_audit_trail_user \
         admin_audit_trail_user_roles \
         admin_audit_trail_node

For Content Management Sites

drush en admin_audit_trail_node \
         admin_audit_trail_media \
         admin_audit_trail_taxonomy \
         admin_audit_trail_menu

For Sites with Workflows

drush en admin_audit_trail_node \
         admin_audit_trail_workflows

For Group-based Sites

drush en admin_audit_trail_group \
         admin_audit_trail_user

Next Steps

Troubleshooting

Module Won't Enable

Issue: Error when trying to enable the module

Solutions: - Check that all required modules are enabled - Clear the cache: drush cr - Check PHP error logs for specific errors - Verify database permissions

Audit Trail Page is Empty

Issue: No logs appear on the audit trail page

Solutions: - Ensure you've enabled at least one sub-module - Perform an action that should be tracked (e.g., edit content) - Refresh the page - Check that you have the "Access Admin Audit Trail" permission

Sub-module Missing from List

Issue: A sub-module doesn't appear in the module list

Solutions: - Check that required dependencies are installed - For example, Admin Audit Trail Redirect requires the Redirect module - Install the dependency first, then the sub-module will appear