Simple Audit Trail

** rails_3 branch and 0.0.x gem versions is Rails 3x, for the rails 4 compatible gem, use the 1.x.x gem versions and the master branch**

Synopsis

Use to create an audit trail of field changes in a model, storing what was changed and who changed it.

Setup

  1. Add to your Gemfile: gem 'simple_audit_trail
  2. Install the gem bundle install
  3. Run the rake task to copy the migrations: rake simple_audit_trail_engine:install:migrations

  4. Migrate: rake db:migrate

  5. You must have a current_user method in your app. If not, you'll need to override simple_audit_trail_who_id to provide a user id

Model

class Thing < ActiveRecord::Base
  audit [:some_field, :some_other_field]
end

Usage

Thing instances now have an attribute, audited_user_id.

You must set this on the object before you save it with changes to the audited fields, or the audit attempt will fail, and raise an exception.

Assuming you have the above model, and that your controller has access to the usual current_user method, you could do something like:

  t = Thing.find(1)
  t.some_field
  #=> "foo"
  t.audited_user_id = current_user.id
  t.some_field = "bar"
  t.save

which would generate a record in t.simple_audits

  • If you don't wish to track users, but just track changes, add :require_audited_user_id => false to your audit call.