cradle-auditify

Plugin for cradle which provides a way make all changes in your CouchDB database auditable. Approach was inspired by Tugdual Grall's post.

Features

• supports bulk operations
• doesn't damage performance
• optionally allows using separate database instance for audit docs
• allows to easily implement user activity logging by storing audit metadata on audit docs
• inherits Cradle's advantages
• good test coverage

How it works

Cradle-auditify extends original cradle Database instance with methods: auditableSave, auditablePut, auditablePost, auditableRemove, auditableMerge

Each of these methods internally calls original Cradle method (save, put, post, merge or remove) and also saves audit document which is just a copy of an original document but with another _id and containing metadata for auditing.

For example we call database.auditablePost with document like this:

{
   type: 'animal',
   color: 'black'
}

So a new document will be saved into database:

{
   _id: "936caf5e007ee3570e50d7ab3b36b1df",
   _rev: "1-fcc4a130df1a91f981a80bed05e5d2ab",
   type: 'animal',
   color: "black"
}

And also new audit document will be created in the database:

{
   _id: "345ewghyy45007ee3570e50d7ab3b36c19f"
   _rev: "1-de8785f14dc07a79834771143fa0d908",
   type: 'audit',
   color: 'black'
   a_metadata: {
       "timestampBefore": "2015-09-16T13:31:12.237Z",
       "timestampAfter": "2015-09-16T13:31:12.257Z",
       "originId": "936caf5e007ee3570e50d7ab3b36b1df",
       "originType": "animal"
   }
}

Then we call database.auditablePut with changed color property:

{
   _id: "936caf5e007ee3570e50d7ab3b36b1df",
   _rev: "1-fcc4a130df1a91f981a80bed05e5d2ab",
   type: 'animal',
   color: "red"
}

This document will be updated as usual and also new audit document will be created in the database:

{
_id: "56757fghf3570e50d7ab3b36e440"
_rev: "1-a345df4dc07a79834771143fa0d908",
type: 'audit',
color: 'red'
a_metadata: {
    "timestampBefore": "2015-09-16T13:31:12.305Z",
    "timestampAfter": "2015-09-16T13:31:12.308Z",
    "originId": "936caf5e007ee3570e50d7ab3b36b1df",
    "originType": "animal"
   }
}

Then we call database.auditableRemove for this document. Document will be removed from the database as usuall and also new audit document will be created in the database:

{
   _id: "6546ere50d7ab3b36e440"
   _rev: "1-34dgds4dc07a79834771143fa0d908",
   type: 'audit',
   a_metadata: {
       "timestampBefore": "2015-09-16T13:31:12.355Z",
       "timestampAfter": "2015-09-16T13:31:12.361Z",
       "originId": "936caf5e007ee3570e50d7ab3b36b1df",
       "deleted": true
   }
}

API

Extending Cradle database

var cradle = require('cradle');
var cradleAuditify = require('cradle-auditify');

var connection = new (cradle.Connection)('127.0.0.1', 5984, { cache: false });
var db = connection.database('monkeys');
db = cradleAuditify(db);

Configuration

Options can be passed to cradleAuditify function as a second parameter.

var db = connection.database('monkeys');
var auditDb = connection.database('audit');

db = cradleAuditify(db, {
   // you can optionally specify a separate database for storing audit documents
   database: auditDb
});

auditEvents

Node.js event emitter instance. Provides two types of events: 'archived' and 'error'

var db = connection.database('monkeys');
db = cradleAuditify(db);

db.auditEvents.on('archived', function (res) {
    console.log('Audit document with _id ' + res.id + ' created');
});
db.auditEvents.on('error', function (err) {
    console.error(err);
});

auditableSave()

A wrapper for original Cradle save method. Allows bulk operations just as original save

db.auditableSave(
// New document to create/update
{
    color: 'blue'
},
// Arbitrary audit matadata object. Will be added as embeded object to audit document. Nullable
{
    endpoint: '/api/animals',
    method: 'POST',
    userId: 4234
},
function (err, res) {
// Handle response
});

auditableMerge()

A wrapper for original Cradle merge method.

db.auditableMerge(
// id of the document
'sdf34523452sdfsafasdf23f',
// document to merge
{
    color: 'orange'
},
// Arbitrary audit matadata object. Will be added as embeded object to audit document. Nullable
{
    endpoint: '/api/animals',
    method: 'POST',
    userId: 4234
},
function (err, res) {
// Handle response
});

auditablePut()

A wrapper for original Cradle put method.

db.auditablePut(
// id of the document
'sdf34523452sdfsafasdf23f',
// document to put
{
    color: 'orange'
},
// Arbitrary audit matadata object. Will be added as embeded object to audit document. Nullable
{
    endpoint: '/api/animals',
    method: 'POST',
    userId: 4234
},
function (err, res) {
// Handle response
});

auditablePost()

A wrapper for original Cradle post method.

db.auditablePost(
// document to post
{
    color: 'orange'
},
// Arbitrary audit matadata object. Will be added as embeded object to audit document. Nullable
{
    endpoint: '/api/animals',
    method: 'POST',
    userId: 4234
},
function (err, res) {
// Handle response
});

auditableRemove()

A wrapper for original Cradle remove method.

db.auditableRemove(
// id of the document
'sdf34523452sdfsafasdf23f',
// rev of the document
'1-sdf34523452sdfsafasdf23f',
// Arbitrary audit matadata object. Will be added as embeded object to audit document. Nullable
{
    endpoint: '/api/animals',
    method: 'POST',
    userId: 4234
},
function (err, res) {
// Handle response
});