Userstamp extends ActiveRecord::Base to add automatic updating of creator, updater, and
deleter attributes. It is based loosely on ActiveRecord::Timestamp.
Two class methods (model_stamper and stampable) are implemented in this gem. The model_stamper
method is used in models that are responsible for creating, updating, or deleting other objects.
Typically this would be the User model of your application. The stampable method is used in
models that are subject to being created, updated, or deleted by stampers.
This is a fork of:
- the magiclabs-userstamp gem
- which is a fork of Michael Grosser's [userstamp gem] (https://github.com/grosser/userstamp)
- which is a fork of the original userstamp plugin by delynn
In addition to these, I have cherry picked ideas and changes from the following forks:
Finally, this gem only supports Ruby 3.0 and 3.1. Yes, you really should upgrade to a supported version of Ruby. This gem is tested only on Rails 6 - 7; thus far, we have successfully tested it to be compatible with Rails 6.0, 6.1, 7.0, and 7.1
The reason for this is because the original userstamp plugin does not support databases utilising soft deletes. They are not tested explicitly within this gem, but it is expected to work with the following gems:
The stampable method has been modified to allow additional arguments to be passed to the
creator/updater relations. This allows declarations like:
stampablewith_deleted: trueto result in a belongs_to relation which looks like:
belongs_to:creator,class_name: '::User',foreign_key: :created_by,with_deleted: trueDo create a ticket if it is broken, with a pull-request if possible.
While examining the userstamp gem's network on Github, it was noticed that quite a few forks were made to allow customisability in the name and type of the column with the database migration.
This gem now supports customised column names. See the usage section on the configuration options supported.
This fork includes changes to perform model stamping before validation. This allows models to enforce the presence of stamp attributes:
validates:created_by,presence: truevalidates:updated_by,presence: trueFurthermore, the creator attribute is set only if the value is blank allowing for a manual
override.
Assume that we are building a blog application, with User and Post objects. Add the following to the application's Gemfile:
gem'activerecord-userstamp'Define an initializer in your Rails application to configure the gem:
ActiveRecord::Userstamp.configuredo |config|
# config.default_stamper = 'User'# config.creator_attribute = :creator_id# config.updater_attribute = :updater_idconfig.deleter_attribute=nilendBy default, :deleter_attribute is set to :deleter_id for soft deletes. If you are not using
soft deletes, you can set the attribute no nil.
Ensure that each model has a set of columns for creators, updaters, and deleters (if applicable.)
classCreateUsers < ActiveRecord::Migrationdefchangecreate_table:usersdo |t|
...
t.userstampsendendendclassCreatePosts < ActiveRecord::Migrationdefchangecreate_table:postsdo |t|
...
t.userstampsendendendIf you use protect_from_forgery, make sure the hooks are prepended:
classApplicationController < ActionController::Baseprotect_from_forgerywith: :exception,prepend: true# with: anything will do, note `prepend: true`!endDeclare the stamper on the User model:
classUser < ActiveRecord::Basemodel_stamperendIf your stamper is called User, that's it; you're done.
The association which is created on each of the creator_id, updater_id, and deleter_id can
be customised. Also, the stamper used by each class can also be customised. For this purpose, the
ActiveRecord::Base.stampable method can be used:
classPost < ActiveRecord::BasestampableendThe stampable method allows you to customize the creator, updater, and deleter associations.
It also allows you to specify the name of the stamper for the class being declared. Any additional
arguments are passed to the belongs_to declaration.
The major difference between 1.x and 2.x is the naming of the columns. This version of the gem allows specifying the name of the column from the gem configuration:
ActiveRecord::Userstamp.configuredo |config|
config.creator_attribute=:created_byconfig.updater_attribute=:updated_byconfig.deleter_attribute=:deleted_byendWithin migrations, it was possible to declare t.userstamps within a table definition. It used
to accept one argument, which declares whether the deleter column should be created. This has
been changed to respect the gem configuration's deleter_attribute. If that is nil, then no
deleter column would be created.
There is also no need to include the Userstamp module in ApplicationController.
That version of the gem allows every model to declare the name of the column containing the
attribute. That also means that in a large project, every model needs to declare stampable,
which is not very DRY.
To use this gem, normalise all database columns to use a consistent set of column names.
Configure the gem to use those names (as above) and remove all stampable declarations.
There is no need to include the Userstamp module in ApplicationController.
Run
$ bundle exec rspec
- DeLynn Berry: The original idea for this plugin came from the Rails Wiki article entitled Extending ActiveRecord
- Michael Grosser
- John Dell
- Chris Hilton
- Thomas von Deyen
- Joel Low