is it possible to modify magic field updated_at so it will update only when ceratin columns are changed?
if not, I guess I have to do it on my own. In that case, how do I tell if a field has changed in the, say, before_save callback?
I guess I can do something like this
def foo=(val) if self.foo!=val super self.foo_changed = true end end
will that do?
Off the top of my head could you do something like this? Give it try.
def updated_at Time.now if attributes_changed? end
protected
def attributes_changed? stale_record = self.reload self.foo != stale_record.foo end
Although that does force a read from the database.
HTH, Nicholas
There are a couple of plugins that provide that:
http://agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/acts_as_modified http://agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/activerecordchanged
(I haven't used any.)
-- fxn
You can turn automatic timestamps off this way:
MyModel.record_timestamps = false
So in a callback you could check whether the columns have been changed with this plugin:
http://agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/changed_attributes
and set the flag accordingly.
-- fxn