Capturing old values for model in MVC3?

Question

I'm wanting to capture the old values within a model so I can compare with the new values after submission, and create audit logs of changes a user makes.

My guess is doing it with hidden input boxes with duplicated old value properties would be one way. But wondering if there are any other good alternatives?

Thanks

Answer 1

In the save method, just go and get the original object from the database before saving the changes, then you have your old and new values to compare against? :)

Answer 2

This sounds like standard auditing. You should not worry about what has changed just capture EVERYTHING and who made the change. Unless there is some sort of real time reporting that needs to be done.

Possible auditing implementations:

CQRS, in a nutshell it tracks every change to a given object. The downside is it's an architecture that is more involved to implement.

The Rolling ledger. Each insert is a new row in the database. The most current row is used for display purposes, but with each update, a new row is inserted into the database.

Yet another approach is to save it off into an audit table.

All get the job done.