# Logging an user's timestamp
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042
**Category:** General
**Tags:** security
**Created:** [9 October 2021 15:16 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042 "2021-10-09T15:16:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ebolisa](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ebolisa)
#### Post date: [9 October 2021 15:16 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/1 "2021-10-09T15:16:36Z")
Hi,
I'd like to log into my DB the user whenever he/she logs in. How do I go by? In other words, how can I capture the login of a user?
I tried the "is-logged-in" node but I'm not sure it's what I need.
The users are listed in the red-node settings and they're allowed only to see the UI.
TIA
---
### Author:  [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)
#### Post date: [9 October 2021 21:31 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/2 "2021-10-09T21:31:59Z")
Really, without knowing how your users log in, we can't really help very much.
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### Author:  [@ebolisa](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ebolisa)
#### Post date: [9 October 2021 21:52 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/3 "2021-10-09T21:52:02Z")
Well, I guess I was not too clear but I did mention the users are listed in the red-node settings file. Therefore, the users must login through the standard UI login page.
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### Author:  [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)
#### Post date: [9 October 2021 22:02 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/4 "2021-10-09T22:02:01Z")
If you mean logging into the Node-RED editor, you could use the audit log events for that.
The first thing would be to set `audit` to true on the logging section of the settings file and restart Node-RED
You should then see the audit events in the regular log.
If that gives you the info you need, you could create a custom logger that just collected the audit events and write them wherever you want. Don't have a good link for how to write a custom logger, but can share something tomorrow.
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### Author:  [@ebolisa](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ebolisa)
#### Post date: [9 October 2021 22:14 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/5 "2021-10-09T22:14:06Z")
Thanks, the user has _read_ permissions, will what you mentioned capture it too?
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### Author:  [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)
#### Post date: [9 October 2021 22:26 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/6 "2021-10-09T22:26:47Z")
If they login, there wil be an audit event.
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### Author:  [@ebolisa](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ebolisa)
#### Post date: [10 October 2021 07:10 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/7 "2021-10-10T07:10:54Z")
Thanks, I'm getting close to what I'm looking for. In **/var/log/syslog** I see the following info:
```auto
10 Oct 08:51:04 - [audit] {"event":"comms.open","level":98,"timestamp":1633848664512}
10 Oct 08:51:04 - [audit] {"event":"comms.auth","user":{"username":"admin","permissions":"*"},"level":98,"timestamp":1633848664540}
```
I suppose I can analyze the file with a Python process (at the end of the day) and save the info (username/timestamp) into my DB. Unless you suggest to do it using a flow.
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### Author:  [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)
#### Post date: [10 October 2021 07:41 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/8 "2021-10-10T07:41:28Z")
I suggested you create a custom logger that captures just the audit events.
Docs for that are here: [Logging : Node-RED](https://nodered.org/docs/user-guide/runtime/logging#custom-logging-module)
---
### Author:  [@ebolisa](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ebolisa)
#### Post date: [10 October 2021 09:32 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/9 "2021-10-10T09:32:16Z")
So, if I understood correctly the procedure, I can create my own logger with a function which sends to my DB the username and its timestamp when the user logs in?
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### Author:  [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)
#### Post date: [10 October 2021 09:46 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/10 "2021-10-10T09:46:53Z")
Yes, that is what I've suggested.
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### Author:  [@ebolisa](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ebolisa)
#### Post date: [10 October 2021 10:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/11 "2021-10-10T10:27:28Z")
Thank you! Now the challenge stands in writing a function in javascript within mylogger file to update my DB 🙃
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### Author:  [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)
#### Post date: [10 October 2021 10:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/12 "2021-10-10T10:27:32Z")
Here is a very simple example of a log to file custom handler:
```auto
/** Custom logging */
tilog: {
level: 'trace',
metrics: false,
audit: false,
handler: function(settings) {
// Called when the logger is initialised
const fs = require('fs')
const util = require('util')
// Use flags 'a' to append or 'w' to create new on restart
const log_file = fs.createWriteStream(__dirname + '/uibuilder.log', {flags : 'w'})
const tilogLevels = {
10: 'fatal', 20: 'error', 30: 'warn', 40: 'info', 50: 'debug', 60: 'trace'
}
const tilog = function(d) { //
log_file.write(util.format.apply(null, arguments) + '\n')
//log_stdout.write(util.format(d) + '\n');
}
/** Return the logging function
* msg schema: { id, level, type, msg, timestamp}
* id = The node instance that produces the msg
* level = 10: fatal, 20: error, 30: warn, 40: Info, 50: Debug, 60: Trace
* timestamp = Javascript timestamp. Use `(new Date(msg.timestamp)).toIsoString()` or similar to convert
* type = 'flow' - not clear when/why this is produced
*/
return function(msg) {
if ( msg.msg.includes('[uibuilder') ) {
//console.log('TOLOG: ', msg)
tilog(
`${tilogLevels[msg.level]}:`, msg.msg
)
}
// else {
// tilog(
// `?? ${tilogLevels[msg.level]}:`, msg.msg
// )
// }
}
}
},
```
It just picks out log lines containing the string `[uibuilder` and sends them to a file includes all logs up to and including trace.
---
### Author:  [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)
#### Post date: [10 October 2021 10:32 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/13 "2021-10-10T10:32:48Z")
It would be really nice if we could pass or set a tag into the node-red logger which could be used in the custom logger functions!
Alternatively, if we could use custom log levels.
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### Author:  [@ebolisa](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ebolisa)
#### Post date: [10 October 2021 12:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/14 "2021-10-10T12:49:37Z")
Thanks, will look into that. In the mid-time, I trying to undestand why the user 'demo' is not logged in syslog, it only shows 'admin' even though both users have credentials in 'settings.js' 🤔
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [9 December 2021 12:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/logging-an-users-timestamp/52042/15 "2021-12-09T12:49:56Z")
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