Create a log file in PHP

Question

So, I have an application in PHP that register users and items and then I can "give" an item to a user, and what I want it to create a log file that register the 'life cycle' of an item. eg:
I create an item and give that item to the user 'Mike', a few weeks later the user 'Mike' give back that item bc the item broked, and I want all that to be on a log file.
Any tips? Thanks!

This is a very general design question and have no reall clear question. But basically you want a log file named after the item somehow and then append to it on operations. This will probably create a lot of files if your system is around for a long time and you do not do clean up. — Virre, Oct 29 '18 at 14:08
The posted question does not appear to include [any attempt](https://idownvotedbecau.se/noattempt/) at all to solve the problem. StackOverflow expects you to [try to solve your own problem first](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/261592/how-much-research-effort-is-expected-of-stack-overflow-users), as your attempts help us to better understand what you want. Please edit the question to show what you've tried, so as to illustrate a specific problem you're having in a [mcve]. For more information, please see [ask] and take the [tour]. — Blue, Oct 29 '18 at 14:08
Maybe logging is not the right choice here. Perhaps a database with an appropriate relationship between users and items might work better — apokryfos, Oct 29 '18 at 14:18
@apokryfos it has, user.id is the FK between items and users, but I want all the records to be saved on a log file — Missing No, Oct 29 '18 at 14:23
If it's properly set-up then you can get the information you need using database queries. If you can't then you need to re-design it in such a way that it would allow you to do so. — apokryfos, Oct 29 '18 at 14:24

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 29 '18 at 14:11

1

$fp = fopen('logfile.txt', 'a');
fwrite($fp, date("Your date format").'Item xy passed from User Mike to User Alice');
fclose($fp);

a indicates to open the file and point to the end (typical for log files). Then you just print a timestamp and write which Item was passed from which user to which user, and close the file again. Just execute this after your actual code.

answered Oct 29 '18 at 14:11

Lithilion

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But how do I store the old owner of the item? Because i would need something like `the item $item was givven to $name` and further `the item $item was returned by $name because $reason` – Missing No Dec 06 '18 at 10:24

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 29 '18 at 14:31

For what it's worth MySQL provides the very efficient ARCHIVE storage engine, suitable for write-a-lot read-infrequently use patterns.

It's a good choice if you want your log data in the DBMS (backed up, etc).

It's also a good choice for log data when your web app runs on multiple servers: all the entries go to one place, and you don't have to wonder which machine a particular log entry lives on.

Create a log file in PHP

2 Answers2