User Sessions

User Sessions is a Laravel package for tracking user activity, managing user sessions, and logging detailed session and request data. It is designed to enhance auditing, analytics, and security in your Laravel applications.

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📦 Installation

Install the package via Composer:

composer require delickate/user-sessions

Or install the latest development version:

composer require delickate/user-sessions:dev-main --prefer-source

Pushlish files

> php artisan vendor:publish --tag=user-sessions  --force

Remove / Uninstall

To uninstall the package:

composer remove delickate/user-sessions

Clear Laravel caches after installation/removal:

php artisan cache:clear
php artisan config:clear
composer dump-autoload
php artisan optimize:clear

After installing, run the migrations to create required database tables:

php artisan migrate

Middleware

Add the user sessions middleware in your app/Http/Kernel.php under the web middleware group (after authentication middleware):

1. \App\Http\Middleware\SecurityHeaders::class inside middleware array
2. 'user.sessions' inside middlewareGroups array

protected $middleware = [
        //...
        //...
        \App\Http\Middleware\SecurityHeaders::class, //SANI: user-sessions
        \App\Http\Middleware\CheckPasswordExpiry::class, //SANI: user-sessions
    ];

protected $middlewareGroups = [
        'web' => [
            //...
            //...
            //\Illuminate\Auth\Middleware\Authenticate::class, 
            'user.sessions',  //SANI: user-sessions
        ],
    ];

protected $routeMiddleware = [
        //...
        //...
        'force.password.change' => \App\Http\Middleware\ForcePasswordChange::class,   //SANI: user-sessions
    ];

This middleware automatically logs user activity and stores session information & will provide security protections.

Routes

use App\Http\Controllers\UserController;
use App\Http\Controllers\UserSessions\UserSessionController;
use App\Http\Controllers\ChangePasswordController;
use App\Http\Controllers\HomeController;

 //SANI: change password
    Route::middleware(['auth'])->group(function () 
    {
        //SANI: user sessions
        Route::get('/sessions', [UserSessionController::class, 'index'])
            ->name('sessions');

        Route::get('/user-sessions/{session_id}/activities', 
        [UserSessionController::class, 'activities']
        )->name('user-sessions.activities');

        Route::get('/user-sessions/{session_id}/audit-logs',
        [UserSessionController::class, 'auditLogs']
        )->name('user-sessions.audit-logs');
    
        //SANI: Change password & their rules
        Route::get('/change-password', [ChangePasswordController::class, 'show'])
        ->name('password.change.form');

        Route::post('/change-password', [ChangePasswordController::class, 'update'])
        ->name('password.change.update');

        //SANI: Forcefully change password
        Route::middleware(['force.password.change'])->group(function () 
        {
            Route::get('/home', [HomeController::class, 'index']);
        });

        //SANI: Exception logs
        Route::get('/test-exception', function () 
        {
            throw new Exception("Test Exception Logging");
        });
    });

Models

Open User model and add 'password_changed_at' in fillable like this

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\MustVerifyEmail;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;
use Illuminate\Notifications\Notifiable;
use Laravel\Sanctum\HasApiTokens;

class User extends Authenticatable
{
    use HasApiTokens, HasFactory, Notifiable;

    /**
     * The attributes that are mass assignable.
     *
     * @var array<int, string>
     */
    protected $fillable = [
        'name',
        'email',
        'password',
        'password_changed_at'   //SANI: user-sessions
    ];

Exception handler

Open App\Exceptions\Handler.php file and update it like this

use App\Models\ExceptionLog;
use Throwable;

    public function register()
    {
        $this->reportable(function (Throwable $e) {
                try {
                ExceptionLog::create([
                    'message' => $e->getMessage(),
                    'file'    => $e->getFile(),
                    'line'    => $e->getLine(),
                    'trace'   => $e->getTraceAsString(),
                    'url'     => request()->fullUrl() ?? null,
                    'method'  => request()->method() ?? null,
                    'ip'      => request()->ip() ?? null,
                    'user_id' => auth()->check() ? auth()->id() : null,
                ]);
            } catch (\Exception $ex) {
                // Prevent infinite loop if DB logging fails
            }
        });
    }

    //SANI: show 500 error on exception
    public function render($request, Throwable $e)
    {
        
        if (app()->environment('production')) 
        {
            return response()->view('errors.500', [], 500);
        }

        return parent::render($request, $e);
    }

Layout links

<ul>
    <li><a href="{{ url('sessions') }}">Sessions</a></li>
    <li><a href="{{ url('/change-password') }}">Change password</a></li>
</ul>  

Publish Package Files

Publish all package configuration, views, routes, controllers, and middleware:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=user-sessions  --force

⚡ Features

User Sessions package provides the following features:

1. User Session Tracking

• Automatically tracks user sessions.
• Stores session ID, login/logout times, and session metadata.
• Supports multiple simultaneous sessions per user.

2. Activity Logging

Logs each user request, including:

• HTTP method (GET, POST, etc.)
• URL and route name
• Payload (excluding sensitive data like passwords)
• IP address and user agent
• Timestamp of the request
• Payload is stored safely as JSON in the database.

3. Audit Logging

• Tracks database changes for configured models.
• Logs UPDATE and DELETE queries automatically.
• Prevents logging of system tables to avoid infinite loops.
• Supports model observers for detailed audit trails.

4. Login & Logout Event Listeners

• Logs every user login and logout event.
• Automatically associates events with user session records.

5. Middleware-Based Architecture

• user.sessions middleware handles request logging.
• store.user.session middleware stores session IDs for the currently logged-in user.
• Easy to customize or extend.

6. Customizable Views & Routes

• Optional UI for viewing user sessions and activity.
• Configurable routes and views.
• Fully publishable for customization.

7. Secure & Lightweight

• Excludes sensitive fields (passwords, tokens) from logs.
• Minimal overhead and fully compatible with Laravel's session system
• Clickjacking Protection (Prevents the application from being embedded in iframe elements on external domains)
• MIME-Type Sniffing Prevention (Prevents browsers from interpreting files as a different MIME type than declared)
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Protection (Legacy Browsers)
• Referrer Policy Enforcement (Controls how much referrer information is shared during navigation)
• Content Security Policy (Restricts the sources from which the browser may load resources)
• HTTP Strict Transport Security (Forces browsers to use HTTPS for all future requests)

8. Password Policy & Authentication Controls

• Strong password complexity enforcement
• Password history restriction (reuse prevention)
• Forced password change mechanisms
• 90-day password expiration enforcement
• Secure password storage using strong hashing
• Administrative forced reset capability

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This version includes:

• Installation & uninstall instructions
• Middleware setup
• Publishing files
• Detailed feature list
• Configuration & usage examples
• Troubleshooting
• License & contributing info

Here is list of commands in order to run

> php artisan session:table (only if session is being store into database.  its optional)
> composer require delickate/user-sessions
> php artisan vendor:publish --tag=user-sessions  --force
> php artisan migrate

To remove package run following commands

> composer remove delickate/user-sessions
> composer clear-cache