Paper trail lets us track all the changes in the models data for the purpose of its editing and versioning. By using this gem, we can see how a model looks, at every stage of its life-cycle and we can take it back to any version of the model data and we can even undo all the changes after a record has been destroyed so as to restore it completely.
gem ‘paper_trail’ run bundle install to install it
After bundle install you can run the following command for adding versions table to your database
bundle exec rails generate paper_trail:installbundle exec rake db:migrateAdd has_paper_trail method to your models for tracking.
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
has_paper_trail
endIf you are using a current_user method then you can track who is responsible for particular change by the below callback
class ApplicationController
before_action :set_paper_trail_whodunnit
end
Features of paper trail gem
It stores each and every change happened in the model like create, update and destroy
It does not store any updates unless if any modifications
It allows you to get every version including the actual and even once destroyed
Basic Usage
Now you have a versions method which returns all the changes in particular model
product = Product.find 2
product.versions# [, , ...]Based on the vesrion you can find the changes that happened in a model
v = product.versions.lastv.event # it returns update / create / destroy
v.whodunnit #it returns a user id who did this
v.reify the poduct as it was before the update
you can navigate versions by using previous_version and next_version methods
product = product.previous_versionproduct = product.next_version #it returns nil if there is no object
product.versions.last.whodunnit #it returns the user who did the particular change
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