Level 102
Wont they always be 100% identical?
2 likes
Sep 19, 2022
10
Level 8
Multiple updated_at columns - how to define?
I know that when using $timestamps I can have a timestamp with a last_updated_at column that updates automatically on every row change.
But what if I have multiple updated at columns:
col_x | col_x_last_updated_at | col_y | col_y_last_updated_at
how should I go about updating the matching columns? So if col_x updates, update the timestamp of col_x_last_updated_at?
Is my best option to use Events? and whenever there's an updated event dispatch, then update the necessary columns on the listener ?
Level 122
when you save a value for col_x also set the current time in the col_x_updated column
don't make it harder than it needs to be
2 likes
Level 8
Level 122
@Ligonsker or just now()
1 like
Level 15
Not quite sure what your goal is, but consider using something like this package here to have a nice and clean history for certain models which is stored in a separate table: https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-activitylog/v4/introduction
Also, you can specify the exact columns that should be watched.
3 likes
Level 8
@pikant I don't think that is going to help in this case
In my case the goal is simply to get the timestamp of when the checkboxes were updated last (need to display it alongside the rest of the data of that row)
1 like
Level 15
@Ligonsker Alright. In this case, your approach might be the easiest solution.
As Snapey mentioned, you can either do it manually or you can create a mutator for each of the checkboxes that also touches the related _updated_at attribute. Might be a little cleaner and fail-safer.
See https://laravel.com/docs/9.x/eloquent-mutators#defining-a-mutator or https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/eloquent-mutators#defining-a-mutator
2 likes
Level 73
One option is to create a log table that stores all the updates.
With the following columns
- table_name
- column_name
- old_value
- new_value
- username
- timestamps
It would look something like this.
table1 column1 0 1 Erik
table1 column2 5 4 Dan
You can use table triggers for that.
That is the way I would do it, you can of course handle it with php if you wish, put this kind if thing is what table triggers are for.
1 like
Level 8
@Tray2 this is a good option, but when I thought about it, I prefer to keep it in code because I can see it might break integrity if small changes happen, especially when I'm not in charge of the DB
Level 73
@Ligonsker I wouldn't worry about that, we use the same technique in our production databases and we register a litteral shit load of data every day, and since it's in it's own table there is no integrity issues. You just need to have the tables primary key in the log table (I forgot to add it to the illustration). You can also register the action (insert, update and delete).
Please or to participate in this conversation.