How to extend the Version class

[TvL2386]

Hi guys,

I want to add a way to create a flexible audit trail for my application.
What I want is to select Version objects based on created_at and item_type.
Best way to do this imho, is to add a scope to the Version class.
I've added the file app/models/version.rb and started to extend the Version class.

When I have this, I'd like to add more logic in the Version class to built an audit trail.

In development the changes are not picked up on. I wonder why this does not work.
I'm also wondering if I'm trying to do something evil here.

Please help me out!

Kind regards,
Tom

[batter]

@TvL2386 - Please read the README section on Storing Metadata for an example of how to add an initializer for PaperTrail with which you can add / modify the Version class.

The class should get placed in config/initializers/paper_trail.rb.

[TvL2386]

The problem of development not picking up on changes remains if I put my version class definition in config/initializers/version.rb. I have to restart development everytime to see the result.

[batter]

That's true. But it is the way to do it for the time being. Maybe we can look at trying to put a reloader in for version 3, I'm not sure what that would entail.

[abepetrillo]

I'm also looking for an alternative to this, defining methods in initialisers isn't my idea of fun. I actually found this on a project I was working on and decided to move it. If I find a way around it I'll let you guys know :)

[TvL2386]

Highly appreciated abepetrillo!

[abepetrillo]

Unfortunately I've ran out of time a little bit, it doesn't solve the having to restart the server issue, but it fixes the location, I put this in my initializer:

require "#{Rails.root}/app/models/version.rb"

So the model is in the right place, and it has a corresponding spec/models/version_spec.rb.

It might be worth looking into requiring the class definition in config/application.rb, but I doubt it'll help!

[joshuapinter]

FYI, in 2020 as of Version 10 (likely around Version 4+), here's how you extend PaperTrail::Version to add some instance methods:

config/initializers/paper_trail.rb

# Extend PaperTrail::Version with some of our own methods we use.
#
module PaperTrail
  class Version < ActiveRecord::Base # Cannot use ApplicationRecord here so you may need to disable Rubocop for this line with `rubocop:disable Rails/ApplicationRecord`.

    include PaperTrail::VersionConcern

    def no_change?
      self.changeset.empty? 
    end

  end
end

[pepetorres1998]

There is a snippet of code in the docs that misleads to make PaperTrail::Version abstract by adding it inside app/models/paper_trail instead of config/initializers/

https://github.com/paper-trail-gem/paper_trail#configuration

# app/models/paper_trail/version.rb
module PaperTrail
  class Version < ActiveRecord::Base
    include PaperTrail::VersionConcern
    self.abstract_class = true
  end
end

I already forked the gem, is it okay if I send a pull request to change that README.md part of the file?
To actually make it abstract it needs to be on config/initializers/paper_trail.rb

# config/initializers/paper_trail.rb
module PaperTrail
  class Version < ActiveRecord::Base
    include PaperTrail::VersionConcern
    self.abstract_class = true
  end
end