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Custom Timestamps for ActiveRecord 3.1+/4.x

Sometimes you may need to use timestamp columns other than created_at/created_on and updated_at/updated_on, e.g. when you are using a legacy database. Custom Timestamps lets you define one or more additional columns to update just like Rails updates created_at/created_on and/or updated_at/updated_on. In addition, it lets you define these columns in the model class and lets you define whether you want the application and/or model(s) to set the updated column(s) on creation.

This does not change "timestamps" behavior in migrations. New models will continue to get updated_at/created_at or whatever you have designated, nor should it affect existing behavior in Rails (ActiveRecord::Timestamp) that looks for created_at/created_on and updated_at/updated_on and updates those on create/update.

It uses the Rails 3.1+-4.x/ActiveRecord 3.1+-4.x self.record_timestamps to determine if it should update the date of the created_timestamp column(s) and should_record_timestamps? to determine if it should update the date of the updated_timestamp column(s) and it does these in the private create and update methods that then call super to execute the default ActiveRecord::Timestamp defined create and update methods.

Setup

In your ActiveRecord/Rails 3.1+ project, add this to your Gemfile:

gem 'activerecord-custom_timestamps'

Then run:

bundle install

Configuration

In Model

Custom Timestamps lets you do the following in your model to specify which columns should be used for created_at and updated_at:

self.created_timestamp = :manufactured_on
self.updated_timestamp = :modded_on

It also supports updating multiple columns.

self.created_timestamp = [:manufactured_on, :amalgamated_at]
self.updated_timestamp = [:redesigned_at, :redesign_release_date]

You don't need to specify updated_at or updated_on in self.updated_at, and you don't need to specify created_at or created_on in self.created_at. Those columns are still updated by ActiveRecord (unless you overrode that).

If you want to control whether your custom self.updated_timestamp column(s) will be updated on create also, and don't want to set that as an application-wide default or use the default, then:

self.update_custom_updated_timestamp_on_create = false # default is true

In Application

In environment.rb or wherever seems most appropriate, you can set the configuration option in one of two ways:

CustomTimestamps.update_custom_updated_timestamp_on_create = false # default is true

Please set this one to either true or false to avoid issues if defaults change later.

Usage

Just try to save and update an existing model that has the custom timestamp columns.

Using Without Rails

If using Rails, the appropriate module will be included into ActiveRecord::Base for Rails 3 or 4 (the method names changed in 4).

If you aren't using Rails, you'll want to include the appropriate module in your model or base model, e.g.

include ActiveRecord::VERSION::MAJOR > 3 ? ::CustomTimestamps::Model : ::CustomTimestamps::Rails3Model

Authors

This app was written by FineLine Prototyping, Inc. by the following contributors:

License

Copyright (c) 2013 FineLine Prototyping, Inc., released under the [MIT license][lic].

[lic]: http://github.com/FineLinePrototyping/activerecord-custom_timestamps/blob/master/LICENSE [travis]: http://travis-ci.org/FineLinePrototyping/activerecord-custom_timestamps [badgefury]: http://badge.fury.io/rb/activerecord-custom_timestamps