Rails Model Versioning with Approval

Question

I have a model that members will be able to update but their changes wont take effect until an admin approves their changes. Has anyone solved this same problem and what gems would you recommend for versioning? PaperTrail? Vestal versions?

Answer 1

Perhaps you could use vestal_versions with a slight twist. Add an after_update action in your controller which rolls back to the previous version if the user who made the change is not an admin. Then you can set the instance's status to pending, which would alert an admin for review. The admin would then just review the latest version and move it up if approved.

# model_controller.rb
after_update :rollback_if_not_admin

def rollback_if_not_admin
  unless current_user.admin?
  #roll back changes
  version = @model_instance.versions.count
  if version > 1
    @model_instance.reset_to!(version - 1)
    @model_instance.status = "pending"
  end

  flash[:notice] = "Your changes will be reflected once an admin has reviewed them"
  redirect_to @model_instance
end

Answer 2

There is a Draftsman gem. It lets you create draft versions of your database records. Read more here. You will have to add an admin interface.