All versions have the same created_at value

[khelll]

Every version gets created with the same created_at value of the first version.

This is my model:

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_paper_trail only: [:title, :content, :link], on: [:update]
end

[jaredbeck]

Every version gets created with the same created_at value of the first version.

• Are you talking about the versions.created_at column, or the created_at value serialized in versions.object?
• What version of paper_trail are you using?
• What is the minimum code I can paste into a brand new rails app to reproduce this problem?

[ItaiLeibowitz]

I believe I'm running into the same issue, using PaperTrail 4.0.0:

This is in record_create, where data[PaperTrail.timestamp_field] is set to the item's created_at value. The problem is, if the item was actually created at some point in the past and the current version is actually re-creating it (because it has also been deleted at some point), the version is getting a bad timestamp that is not in line with the current time of the update.

Here's an illustration of the problem I'm getting because of this. I'm implementing an undo/redo mechanism:

Time=0: Item1.create => (item1.created_at = 0; item1.updated_at = 0; version0.created_at = 0 )
Time=1: Item1.update =>(Item1.created_at = 0; item1.updated_at = 1; version1.created_at = 1 )
Time=2: item1.destroy =>(item1 = nil; version2.created_at = 2)
Time=3: item1.create =>(item1.created_at = 0; item1.updated_at = 3; version3.created_at = 0)

You can see that version3 has the wrong time stamp. It's a problem for me because reify_has_many still only uses timestamps to find subsequent versions, and my item1 is a has_many association. when I undo/redo, version3 never comes up in the reify_has_many query and that messes up the reification of associations.

One potential suggestion - it might be better to use the item's updated_at field for the timestamp - I think that would solve this problem:

def record_create 
[...]
  if respond_to?(:updated_at)
    data[PaperTrail.timestamp_field] = updated_at
  end
[...]

same as in the record_update method.

[khelll]

I found the problem, turns out the method updated_at was redefined in the Post model. It seems that the gem is making use of it to store the created_at for the version.

[batter]

I believe PR #589 will address this if / when merged, correct?

[ItaiLeibowitz]

Yes, exactly right.