Audit View Helper

The plugin ships an AuditHelper that the bundled admin viewer uses to render diffs, badges, and links. It's also useful in your own templates when you want to show audit data alongside a record — for example, on a profile page or a "history" tab on an entity view.

Loading

php

// In a controller, view, or AppView::initialize()
$this->loadHelper('AuditStash.Audit');

The helper auto-loads HtmlHelper for link/button generation. Output is Bootstrap 5 markup (cards, badges, tables) — if your app uses a different framework you can either wrap the output or copy the methods you need into a project-local helper.

Method reference

Diff rendering

Method	Returns	Notes
`diff($original, $changed)`	side-by-side HTML diff	one card per changed key; long text uses word-level diff
`diffInline($original, $changed)`	unified inline diff HTML	one table per changed key; `−`/`+` rows
`diffStyles()`	`<style>…</style>` block	call once in the layout to ship the diff CSS
`diffScript()`	`<script>…</script>` block	call once if you want the inline/side toggle buttons (`#btn-inline-diff` / `#btn-side-diff`)

If jfcherng/php-diff is in your composer.json, both diff methods use it for word-level granularity. Otherwise the helper falls back to a built-in DiffLib (sebastian/diff-based) which is slightly less granular but dependency-free.

php

echo $this->Audit->diffStyles();      // once, in the layout
echo $this->Audit->diff($log->original, $log->changed);

Formatting

Method	Returns
`formatValue($value)`	one cell of HTML — handles `null`, bools, arrays (pretty-printed), and long strings
`formatUser($userId, $userDisplay = null)`	display name, optionally linked via `AuditStash.linkUser`
`formatRecord($source, $primaryKey, $displayValue = null)`	record reference, optionally linked via `AuditStash.linkRecord`

formatUser and formatRecord honour the link configuration described in the Configuration page — string templates with {user} / {source} / {primary_key} placeholders, array URLs, or callables all work.

Badges and summaries

Method	Returns
`eventTypeBadge($type)`	colored Bootstrap badge — green/blue/red/yellow for create/update/delete/revert, secondary for custom event types
`transactionId($txn, $full = false)`	`<code>` short or full transaction id
`changeSummary($changed)`	"3 field(s): title, body, status"

eventTypeBadge accepts either an AuditLogType enum case or any string, so it works for the custom action events fed through Audit::log().

Tables

Method	Returns
`metadata($meta)`	two-column key/value table for the `meta` payload
`fieldValuesTable($data, $title = null)`	full-width field/value table — handy for CREATE/DELETE rows where there's no diff to render

Action buttons

Method	Returns
`revertButton($auditLogId, $options = [])`	`<a class="btn btn-warning">` linking to the revert preview
`restoreButton($source, $primaryKey, $options = [])`	`<a class="btn btn-success">` linking to the restore action

See Revert & Restore for the full UI flow.

Example: history tab on an entity view

php

<?php
// templates/Articles/history.php
use AuditStash\AuditLogType;

$this->loadHelper('AuditStash.Audit');
echo $this->Audit->diffStyles();
?>

<h2>History — <?= h($article->title) ?></h2>

<?php foreach ($auditLogs as $log): ?>
    <div class="card mb-4">
        <div class="card-header d-flex gap-2 align-items-center">
            <?= $this->Audit->eventTypeBadge($log->type) ?>
            <span class="text-muted small">
                <?= $log->created->nice() ?>
                · <?= $this->Audit->formatUser($log->user_id, $log->user_display) ?>
            </span>
            <span class="ms-auto">
                <?= $this->Audit->transactionId($log->transaction_key) ?>
                <?php if ($log->type === AuditLogType::Update->value): ?>
                    <?= $this->Audit->revertButton($log->id) ?>
                <?php endif ?>
            </span>
        </div>
        <div class="card-body">
            <?= $this->Audit->diff($log->original, $log->changed) ?>
            <?= $this->Audit->metadata($log->meta) ?>
        </div>
    </div>
<?php endforeach ?>

Configuration

The helper itself reads two config keys at construction time:

php

'differOptions' => [
    'context'          => 2,
    'ignoreCase'       => false,
    'ignoreWhitespace' => false,
],
'rendererOptions' => [
    'detailLevel' => 'word',
    'showHeader'  => false,
    'lineNumbers' => true,
],

Override via $this->loadHelper('AuditStash.Audit', [...]) if you need different defaults — for example, 'ignoreWhitespace' => true to suppress trailing-whitespace-only changes in long text diffs.

Audit View Helper ​

Loading ​

Method reference ​

Diff rendering ​

Formatting ​

Badges and summaries ​

Tables ​

Action buttons ​

Example: history tab on an entity view ​

Configuration ​