paper_trail exploration

paper_trail_explore.md

Exploring paper_trail gem

1. These notes are meant to follow reading the README. Please start there.
2. Primary interface is the has_paper_trail class method added to ActiveRecord::Base.
3. Calling this method adds some associations and callbacks to the model.
4. These associations are to PaperTrail::Version models or its ancestors all which inherit ActiveRecord::Base. This ActiveModel::Concern module provides all the features.
5. Versions can be in many tables and a model may have many version types 1, 2, 3
6. Versions can store custom meta data but any data will require columns on the version table 1, 2
7. Versions help to track who was responsible for a change via the whodunnit attribute 1, 2
8. One can add whodunnit info with a custom controller helper but any info will require columns on the version table.
9. Diffing requires storing changesets which requires the object_changes column in your versions table.