paper_trail is an excellent gem to track record versions and changes.
You almost never want to reimplement something like it yourself. If you need to log some extra information, you can add them on top.
It comes with a really good README file that holds lots of examples. I'll show you only some of its features here:
-
Setting up a model to track changes
: Just addhas_paper_trailto it:
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
has_paper_trail
end -
Accessing a previous version
: Sayinguser.previous_versiongives you aUserinstance with the attributes from that previous version. You can also use something likeuser.version_at(10.hours.ago). -
Diffing attribute changes
: Access aVersiondirectly, likeuser.versions.lastand call itschangeset:
user.versions.last.changeset
=> { 'first_name' => [ 'Alice', 'Bob' ], 'gender' => [ 'female', 'male' ] } -
Tracking who made the changes
: It usescurrent_userfrom your controllers, if present. Awesome!
Check out the documentation for more features.
