# ActsAsArchival Atomically archive object trees in your activerecord models. We had the problem that acts_as_paranoid and similar plugins/gems always work on a record-by-record basis and made it very difficult to restore records atomically (or archive them, for that matter). Because the archive and unarchive methods are in transactions, and every archival record involved gets the same archive number upon archiving, you can easily restore or remove an entire set of records without having to worry about partial deletion or restoration. Additionally, other plugins generally screw with how `destroy`/`delete` work. We don't because we actually want to be able to destroy records. ## Install Gemfile: `gem "acts_as_archival"` Any models you want to be archival should have the columns `archive_number` (String) and `archived_at` (DateTime). i.e. `rails g migration AddAAAToPost archive_number archived_at:datetime` Any dependent-destroy AAA model associated to an AAA model will be archived with its parent. _If you're stuck on Rails 3.0x/2, check out the available branches._ ## Example ``` ruby class Hole < ActiveRecord::Base acts_as_archival has_many :rats, :dependent => :destroy end class Rat < ActiveRecord::Base acts_as_archival end ``` ### Simple interactions & scopes ``` ruby h = Hole.create # h.archived? # => false h.archive # => true h.archived? # => "b56876de48a5dcfe71b2c13eec15e4a2" h.archive_number # => "b56876de48a5dcfe71b2c13eec15e4a2" h.archived_at # => Thu, 01 Jan 2012 01:49:21 -0400 h.unarchive # => true h.archived? # => false h.archive_number # => nil h.archived_at # => nil ``` ### Associations ``` ruby h = Hole.create # r = h.rats.create # h.archive # => true h.archive_number # => "b56876de48a5dcfe71b2c13eec15e4a2" r.archive_number # => "b56876de48a5dcfe71b2c13eec15e4a2" r.archived? # => "b56876de48a5dcfe71b2c13eec15e4a2" h.unarchive # => true h.archive_number # => nil r.archive_number # => nil r.archived? # => false ``` ### Scopes ``` ruby h = Hole.create Hole.archived.size # => 0 Hole.unarchived.size # => 1 h.archive Hole.archived.size # => 1 Hole.unarchived.size # => 0 ``` ### Utility methods ``` ruby h = Hole.create # h.is_archival? # => true Hole.is_archival? # => true ``` ### Options When defining an AAA model, it is is possible to make it unmodifiable when it is archived by passing `:readonly_when_archived => true` to the `acts_as_archival` call in your model. ``` ruby class CantTouchThis < ActiveRecord::Base acts_as_archival :readonly_when_archived => true end record = CantTouchThis.create(:foo => "bar") record.archive # => true record.foo = "I want this to work" record.save # => false record.errors.full_messages.first # => "Cannot modify an archived record." ``` ## Caveats 1. This will only work on associations that are dependent destroy. It should be trival to change that or make it optional. 1. It will only work for Rails 2.2 and up, because we are using `named_scope`/`scope`. You can check out [permanent records](http://github.com/fastestforward/permanent_records) for a way to conditionally add the functionality to older Rails installations. 1. If you would like to work on this, you will need to setup sqlite, postgres, and mysql on your development machine. Alternately, you can disable specific dev dependencies in the gemspec and test_helper and ask for help. ## Testing Because this plugin makes use of transactions we're testing it (mostly) on sqlite. Running the tests should be as easy as: ``` bash bundle # if this fails you might need to install/configure some databases test/script/db_setup # makes the databases with the correct permissions (for mySQL) createuser -D -A -P archival_tester # makes user for PostgreSQL; answer the password prompt with "perspicacious" createdb -O archival_tester aaa_test # makes db for PostgreSQL and sets owner to our test user rake ``` ## Help Wanted We'd love to have your help making this better! If you have ideas for features this should implement or you think the code sucks, let us know. And PRs are greatly appreciated. :+1: ## Thanks ActsAsParanoid and PermanentRecords were both inspirations for this: * http://github.com/technoweenie/acts_as_paranoid * http://github.com/fastestforward/permanent_records ## Contributors * Joel Meador * Michael Kuehl * Matthew Gordon * Vojtech Salbaba * David Jones * Dave Woodward * Miles Sterrett * James Hill * Marten Claes Thanks! *Copyright (c) 2009-2013 Expected Behavior, LLC, released under the MIT license*