Activity #

The app records what happens to files and folders: new, changed, deleted, and restored files, shares, comments, tags, and downloads through public links. Each account sees the events for its own files and for files shared with it. Accounts can also get a summary by email.

Requirements #

Installation #

In the web interface: open Market from the app menu in the top left corner, search for "Activity", and install the app.

On the command line:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ market:install activity

The command downloads the package from the Marketplace, installs the app, and enables it. If the app is already installed and only disabled:

sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ app:enable activity

Setup #

The app has no page of its own in the admin settings. Administrators set two values on the command line:

# delete entries after 90 days
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ config:system:set activity_expire_days --type integer --value 90

# record renaming and moving
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ config:app:set activity enable_move_and_rename_activities --value yes

Before you shorten activity_expire_days, check whether contractual or legal retention periods apply.

Background jobs #

The emails go out through the instance's email delivery. The sender's local part is no-reply unless mail_from_address sets a different one.

Command line #

# send all pending activity emails now
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ activity:send-emails

# after moving a database: point links of old entries to this instance
sudo -u www-data php8.4 occ activity:rewrite-legacy-links \
  --old-base-url https://old.example.com/cloud

activity:send-emails ignores the interval the accounts have chosen. Daily and weekly summaries go out right away as well.

activity:rewrite-legacy-links changes only links to the old host or below the old webroot. Everything after ? and # stays as it is. The command takes the new address from --new-base-url, or from overwrite.cli.url without that option. A second run changes nothing. Such links appear in the RSS feed, in the API for the clients, and in the stream for entries without a file link.

Usage #

Open the stream from the app menu under Activity. Entries are grouped by day, with the filters on the left.

The Activity app lists changes to your files and shares. Filter on the left by "Activities by you", "Shares", or "Files", for example.

Other apps add more filters, for example Antivirus.

In the file list, the sidebar of a file or folder has an Activities tab with the entries for exactly that item.

Personal settings #

Under Settings → Personal → General, each account decides in the Activity section what appears in the stream and what triggers an email:

• The table has one row per type of event and the columns Mail and Stream. Clicking a column header toggles the whole column; clicking a description toggles the whole row.
• The row "Limit notifications about creation and changes to your favorite files (Stream only)" keeps a busy stream readable.
• List your own file actions in the stream and Notify about your own actions via email include your own actions or leave them out.
• Send emails: As soon as possible, Hourly, Daily, or Weekly. "As soon as possible" also waits for the next run of the email job, which is due every 15 minutes.

If the account has no email address, the section shows "You need to set up your email address before you can receive notification emails."

RSS feed #

In the Activity app, the gear icon in the bottom left corner opens the setting Enable RSS feed. A field then shows the address of the feed.

The address contains a secret token. Anyone who knows it can read the feed without logging in, so do not pass it on. Turning the feed off makes the address invalid; turning it on again creates a new one. For disabled and deleted accounts, the feed no longer returns entries.

Limits and notes #

• The app records nothing retroactively. Events from before the app was enabled are missing from the stream.
• If the account has no email address, the email job discards the account's pending emails. They are not sent later, even after an address is added.
• The app cannot be limited to groups. occ app:enable activity --groups … stops with "activity can't be enabled for groups."
• The app only records renaming and moving when enable_move_and_rename_activities is set to yes.
• The oc_activity table grows with every action. activity_expire_days limits how long entries are kept.
• When you move a database: activity_expire_days is stored in config.php, not in the database. The cleanup job moves with the database and runs on the first cron run. If the value is missing from the new config.php, the job deletes everything older than 365 days. Copy the value over before cron runs for the first time (see Moving to another server).

Troubleshooting #