Extension:EventLogging

MediaWiki extensions manual

EventLogging Release status: stable
Implementation	Special page , Database , ContentHandler
Description	Provides a framework for logging analytics events
Author(s)	Ori.livnehtalk
Latest version	continuous updates
MediaWiki	1.33+
PHP	5.5+
Database changes	No
License	GNU General Public License 2.0 or later
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (GitHub) commit history repository contributors (GitHub) code review
Parameters $wgEventLoggingStreamNames $wgEventLoggingSchemaApiUri $wgEventLoggingServiceUri $wgEventLoggingQueueLingerSeconds $wgEventLoggingBaseUri $wgEventLoggingSchemas $wgEventLoggingDBname
Hooks used ApiMain::moduleManager BeforePageDisplay CanonicalNamespaces CodeEditorGetPageLanguage EditFilterMergedContent GetPreferences MovePageIsValidMove
Translate the EventLogging extension if it is available at translatewiki.net
Vagrant role	eventlogging
Issues	Open tasks · Report a bug

The EventLogging extension makes it possible to collect structured data on how users interact with MediaWiki sites.

Features

• EventLogging supports client-side logging from JavaScript and server-side logging from PHP.
• Logging behavior can be dynamically configured using Extension:EventStreamConfig .
• The events are JSON objects defined by versioned JSONSchemas stored in a schema git repository.
• The extension does not include any back-end code for transporting, parsing, or loading these events. A separate service, EventGate, implements this functionality and deals with inserting events into Kafka. Events are then persisted in downstream datastores (e.g. Hive) via various ingestion pipelines. The details of these components are specific to Wikimedia Foundation's configuration.

EventLogging at Wikimedia

The Wikimedia Foundation uses the EventLogging extension as part of a broader system for collecting, aggregating, storing, and analyzing user data within the limits set out by our privacy policy and data retention guidelines.

This page is about general use of the EventLogging extension. The Wikimedia Foundation uses EventLogging with WMF specific backend components and schema repositories. For Wikimedia specific and maintained documentation, see wikitech:Analytics/Systems/EventLogging and wikitech:Event Platform.

Installation

• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called EventLogging in your extensions/ folder.
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php :

  wfLoadExtension( 'EventLogging' );
  $wgEventLoggingBaseUri = '/beacon/event';
  $wgEventLoggingServiceUri = '/beacon/intake-analytics';
  $wgEventLoggingStreamNames = false;
  

•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Vagrant installation:

• If using Vagrant , install with vagrant roles enable eventlogging --provision

Configuring the schema location

By default, the extension will look for schemas on Meta-Wiki. The relevant default settings are:

# (default) $wgEventLoggingSchemaApiUri = 'https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/api.php';
# (default) $wgEventLoggingDBname = 'metawiki';

To use local schemas, or schemas from the central wiki of your own wikifarm, you need to override these. E.g. to use the Schema namespace of the local wiki, set

$wgEventLoggingSchemaApiUri = $wgServer . '/w/api.php';
$wgEventLoggingDBname = $wgDBname;

(and ensure the user account that will create the schemas is autoconfirmed).

Logging events using EventLogging

• Extension:EventLogging/Guide - to developing and deploying EventLogging schemas, and more
• Extension:EventLogging/Programming - tips and suggestions for developers writing code to log events

Developing the EventLogging extension

Developer setup

As a developer, you will want to set up and use EventLogging on your development wiki to simulate its use in production.

Using Docker

See MediaWiki-Docker/Configuration recipes/EventLogging

Using mediawiki-vagrant

If you develop using mediawiki-vagrant, everything you need is encapsulated in the eventlogging role. To enable it, run:

$ vagrant roles enable eventlogging
$ vagrant provision

For JavaScript development

If working on the JavaScript client, you'll need to install dependencies with npm install from the folder you're developing in. Then you can use npm test to run ESLint for example. The "How to run tests" section below points out how to see JavaScript test results.

When adding the parameter trackdebug=true to the URL, the console in the browser's devtools will show the event logging being triggered.

How to run tests

There are PHP tests, Python tests, and JavaScript tests.

To run JavaScript tests, visit Special:JavaScriptTest/qunit on your development wiki. (See Manual:JavaScript unit testing .)

To run PHP tests, we use PHPUnit. Make sure it is installed, then:

$ vagrant ssh
vagrant@mediawiki-vagrant:/vagrant/mediawiki/extensions/EventLogging/tests$ php /vagrant/mediawiki/tests/phpunit/phpunit.php EventLoggingExtensionFunctionsTest.php