Historical Data on MongoDB

Historical Data on MongoDB

By default every table lives on your app's main connection (PostgreSQL or MySQL) — nothing about this feature changes that unless you opt in. Self-hosted stores with a lot of append-only history (activity log entries, chat transcripts, CRM email history) can move just those tables onto a separate connection, including MongoDB, without touching anything else.

What Moves

• Activity log — the activity_log table (every create/update/delete/login audit entry)
• Chat messages — the Messaging module's msg_messages table
• CRM email history — the crm_email_messages and crm_email_events tables

Everything else — orders, products, customers, accounting — always stays on your primary connection. This is a targeted move for high-volume, rarely-joined history tables only.

Option A: Another SQL Connection

Point history at any connection already defined in config/database.php (for example a second Postgres database dedicated to logs):

HISTORICAL_DB_CONNECTION=pgsql_history

This works immediately with no extra packages — it is plain Eloquent on a plain SQL connection.

Option B: MongoDB

A mongodb connection template ships in config/database.php already, but it is inert until you opt in:

HISTORICAL_DB_CONNECTION=mongodb
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://user:password@host:27017
MONGODB_DATABASE=storeconsole_history

MongoDB support requires two things this platform does not install by default:

• The mongodb PHP extension on your server
• composer require mongodb/laravel-mongodb (listed under suggest in the root composer.json)

Without the extension and package installed, setting HISTORICAL_DB_CONNECTION=mongodb is safely ignored — every model falls back to the default connection and the app boots and runs exactly as before.

Full MongoDB Model Support

Once mongodb/laravel-mongodb is installed, connection switching alone gives you query-builder-level access to the Mongo collection. For full Eloquent support (BSON casts, ObjectId primary keys, embedded documents) also add the package's MongoDB\Laravel\Eloquent\DocumentModel trait to the model, alongside the connection-switching trait this platform already ships on the history models:

use AnisAronno\PlatformKit\Traits\UsesHistoricalConnection;
use MongoDB\Laravel\Eloquent\DocumentModel;

class Activity extends SpatieActivity
{
    use UsesHistoricalConnection;
    use DocumentModel;
}

Because Store Console ships as full source per license, this one-line addition is a normal customization to your own copy — not a vendor patch.

How to Revert

Unset HISTORICAL_DB_CONNECTION (or set it back to empty) and every model returns to the default connection on the next request — no migration required to turn the feature off.