Rails - Jul 2010 - ActiveRecord::Observer, update_all and has_many

Hi,

I''m using an ActiveRecord::Observer to log users changing data in my
application. However, I''ve noted that adding an item to a has_many
relationship gets logged, but removing the item does not. That is:

  @product.users << user

is logged, but:

  @product.users.delete(user)

is not.

I''ve dug into ActiveRecord and found that the underlying issue is that
the HasManyAssociation delete_records method uses update_all to update
the record. update_all bypasses the normal call backs and therefore also
bypasses the Observer.

Is there a way to get an Observer to observe update_all calls?
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I''ve worked out a solution. It might not be the neatest, but it works 
for me:

has_many has its own call backs. So I can trigger a logging activity 
using the ''after_remove'' call back like this:

  has_many :users, :after_remove => :log_removal

I am then able to grab the Observe object using ObjectSpace:

  def get_an_active_activity_logger
    active_loggers = Array.new
    ObjectSpace.each_object(ActivityLogger){|l| active_loggers << l}
    @activity_logger = active_loggers.first
  end

And call one of @activity_logger''s public methods to generate the log.

  def log_removal(item)
    get_an_active_activity_logger
    @activity_logger.log_activity(
      self,
      ''item_removal'',
      "#{item.class.name} #{item.id} removed from association"
    )
  end

It means I have to update each of my has_many calls and make the 
log_removal and get_an_active_activity_logger methods available to the 
models where they are needed, but both of those are fairly trivial 
tasks.
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