Laravel Trustup Model History – Store model change history

Laravel Trustup Model History is a package designed to store and track changes made to Laravel models. It keeps a detailed history of modifications, helping developers audit changes, debug issues, or monitor how data evolves over time. This package allows you to track which attributes were changed, who made the changes, and when they occurred.

 

Key Features:

1. Tracks Model Changes: Automatically logs any updates, creations, or deletions of models.
2. Stores Old and New Values: Keeps a record of the previous and updated values of model attributes.
3. User Identification: Tracks which user made the change if available.
4. Customizable: You can configure which models and attributes to track and store in the history.

Installation

To install and use Laravel Trustup Model History, follow these steps:

1. Require the Package: First, add the package to your project via Composer:
   
   composer require deegitalbe/laravel-trustup-model-history

   1	composer require deegitalbe/laravel-trustup-model-history

2. Publish the Configuration and Migrations: After installing the package, publish its configuration and migration files:
   
   php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Deegitalbe\LaravelTrustupModelHistory\LaravelTrustupModelHistoryServiceProvider" php artisan migrate

   1 2	php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Deegitalbe\LaravelTrustupModelHistory\LaravelTrustupModelHistoryServiceProvider" php artisan migrate

   This will create the necessary configuration file and database migration for storing model history.
3. Configure the Package: The published configuration file allows you to define how the package should behave. You can configure which models to track, which attributes to include or exclude, and more.The configuration file will be available at config/trustup-model-history.php.

 

Usage

To track changes on a model, simply use the TrackChanges trait provided by the package.

1. Add the Trait to Your Models: Open the model(s) you want to track and add the TrackChanges trait:
   
   namespace App\Models; use Deegitalbe\LaravelTrustupModelHistory\Traits\TrackChanges; use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model; class Post extends Model { use TrackChanges; // Define fillable attributes protected $fillable = ['title', 'content', 'author_id']; }

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

   namespace App\Models;   use Deegitalbe\LaravelTrustupModelHistory\Traits\TrackChanges; use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;   class Post extends Model {     use TrackChanges;       // Define fillable attributes     protected $fillable = ['title', 'content', 'author_id']; }

2. Track Specific Actions: By default, the package will track create, update, and delete actions. If you want to track additional or custom actions, you can do so by customizing the package configuration.

 

Storing History Data

When a model is created, updated, or deleted, the package will automatically store a record of the change in the model_history table. This table contains:

• Model name: The name of the model being tracked.
• Model ID: The ID of the model that was changed.
• Changes: The details of the attributes that were modified, including old and new values.
• User: Optionally, the ID of the user who made the change.
• Timestamp: The date and time the change occurred.

Retrieving History

You can easily retrieve the history of changes for any model. For example, if you want to get the history of changes made to a Post model:

 

Customizing History Tracking

You can customize how model changes are tracked by adjusting the package configuration:

• Selectively Track Models: Only track history for specific models.
• Exclude Attributes: Prevent certain model attributes from being logged (e.g., passwords, tokens).
• Soft Deletes: Track when models are soft deleted (if your models use soft deletes).

Example configuration file (config/trustup-model-history.php):

 

Displaying History in Views

If you want to show the history of changes on a page, you can pass the history data to your Blade views:

 

Conclusion

Laravel Trustup Model History provides a powerful way to keep track of changes to your models. It’s useful for auditing, debugging, and monitoring purposes in your Laravel applications.

 

Additional Considerations

• Documentation: For more detailed usage and advanced options, refer to the official Laravel Trustup Model History documentation.
• Webhooks: The package can be extended to trigger webhooks when model changes occur, useful for integrating with external services.

 

Output:

The Laravel Trustup Model History package operates behind the scenes by logging changes to the database rather than providing direct output like console logs. The output is stored in a database table and can be retrieved and displayed via a view or in a debugging console.

1. Database Table Logs

After changes are made to a tracked model (e.g., Post), the changes are recorded in the model_history table in the database. You can inspect this table using tools like phpMyAdmin, Sequel Pro, or Laravel Tinker.

Example SQL query to inspect the changes:

This will show entries like:

• model_type: App\Models\Post
• model_id: 1 (ID of the post that changed)
• changes: JSON object of old and new values
• user_id: ID of the user who made the change
• created_at: Timestamp of when the change occurred

2. Display Output in Views

If you want to display the model change history in your application’s UI, you can pass the history to a Blade view and show it.

Example Controller to Retrieve and Pass the History:

 

Example Blade View (resources/views/post/history.blade.php):

 

Expected Output in the Browser:

When a user visits the page, they would see something like:

---

Change History for Post: Laravel Trustup Model History

Date	Changed By	Old Title	New Title
2024-09-30	User ID: 1	Laravel Audit Feature	Laravel Trustup Model History
2024-09-29	User ID: 2	Initial Post Title	Laravel Audit Feature

---

3. Debug Output in Logs

You can also log the changes in Laravel’s log file using the Log facade:

Example Code:

 

Example Log Output (storage/logs/laravel.log):

Summary of Outputs:

1. Database Table: You can view the history in the model_history table.
2. Web View: Display history data in a Blade template.
3. Logs: Log the changes in the laravel.log file for debugging.