I have a requirement to record the last accessed date and time on several tables. I desire to do this in a local modification to AR using an initializer. I am looking at timestamp.rb to see how Rails handles the builtin timestamp attributes, but I am completely lost. Can some one explain to me what this code is doing? module ActiveRecord module Timestamp def self.included(base) #:nodoc: base.alias_method_chain :create, :timestamps base.alias_method_chain :update, :timestamps base.class_inheritable_accessor :record_timestamps, :instance_writer => false base.record_timestamps = true end private def create_with_timestamps #:nodoc: if record_timestamps ... I can figure out what the private method in timestamp.rb does, and it is pretty much what I want to do with my custom attributes. What I cannot figure out is how it is invoked. As far as I can determine, the only methods defined as :timestamps occur in the abstract connector class while the attribute record_timestamps occurs, and is referenced, only within timestamp.rb itself. My interpretation of this is that the base.class_inheritable_accessor creates a virtual attribute called record_timestamps, prohibits creation of a setter, and sets the attribute value to true. But, I have no idea how or where the create_with_timestamps method is called. And I cannot fathom what the method_chain is doing since the only timestamps method that I can find has to do with setting up columns in the schema via migrations. Finally, I do not see where the configuration value of config.record_timestamps is used. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk+unsubscribe-/JYPxA39Uh5TLH3MbocFFw@public.gmane.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---