Blamestamp

Blamestamp is intended as an easy way to record the creating and latest-editing user for an Active Record. It works similarly to the built-in Active Record timestamps module, but in a more configurable and predictable manner. Column names are configurable, as are default values, in case you allow non logged-in users to edit some things. Additionally, it allows configuration of when editing a record will update the blamestamps on a related record.

Requirements

Ruby and Rails

Requires Ruby version >= 1.9.2 and Rails version >= 3.0

Current version limitations

Currently only works with a combination of Devise, ActiveRecord and ActiveController.

Installation

Blamestamp should be installed as a gem in your app.

Include the gem in your Gemfile:

gem "blamestamp"

Or, if you like to live on the bleeding-edge:

gem "blamestamp", :git => "https://github.com/cavis/blamestamp"

Getting Started

In your migrations:

class CreateFoos < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    create_table :foos do |t|
      t.string :bar
      t.blamestamps
    end
  end
end

Or, if modifying an existing model:

class AddBlamestampsToFoos < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def up
    change_table :foos do |t|
      t.blamestamps
    end
  end
  def down
    drop_blamestamps :foos
  end
end

In your model:

class Foo < ActiveRecord::Base
  blameable
end

Usage

By default, blamestamps adds 4 columns to your models:

• blame_cre_at
• blame_upd_at
• blame_cre_by
• blame_upd_by

When a record is created, blame_cre_at and blame_cre_by will be set. If no remote-user is logged in (via a controller), blame_cre_by will be nil. On initial creation, both blame_upd_at and blame_upd_by will be nil.

When a record is updated for the first time (and every time after), blame_upd_at and blame_upd_by are modified. Again, blame_upd_by will remain nil if there is no remote-user.

Additionally, blameable adds 2 relations to your models:

• blame_cre_user
• blame_upd_user

These are standard belongs_to associations, and will be nil unless the _at column is populated.

Overriding Stamps

If you want, you can manually set the blamestamps instead of letting the remote user set them. For example:

user1 = User.new
foo1 = Foo.new
foo1.blame_cre_user = user1
foo1.save!
#whatever the remote user may have been, blame_cre_by is now user1.id

Advanced Options

If that's not enough for you, there are several advanced config options available.

In your migrations:

If you don't like the blame prefix on the columns, you can change it. In this example it will create columns blah_cre_at, blah_upd_at, blah_cre_by, and blah_upd_by.

t.blamestamps :prefix => :blah

In your model:

If you changed the prefix of the columns in your migration, you should let the model know about that too:

blameable :prefix => :blah

Or, if you picked something completely off-the-wall in your migration, you can specify each of the 4 columns individually:

blameable :cre_at => :made_at, :upd_at => :changed_at, :cre_by => :invented_by, :upd_by => :hacked_by

And if you don't like the default association names, you can define those too:

blameable :cre_user => :inventor, :upd_user => :hacker

If you're concerned about data validation, you can make sure errors are raised if a record is ever saved with a blank blame_cre_by:

blameable :required => true

Finally, you can cascade modifications from a blameable model to one of its associations. Whenever a record of the blameable class is inserted, updated, or deleted, the upd_at/upd_by columns on the associated record will be updated. For example:

class Foo < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :bar
  belongs_to :project
  blameable :cascade => [:project, :bar]
end

Or, just specify a single cascade:

class Foo < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :bar
  belongs_to :project
  blameable :cascade => :bar
end

Issues and Contributing

Please, let me know about any bugs/feature-requests via the issues tracker. And if you'd like to contribute, send me a note! Thanks.

License

Blamestamp is free software, and may be redistributed under the MIT-LICENSE.