whodidit

WhoDidIt-Behavior

The WhoDidIt-Behavior can be used to know who created, and who modified a specific post.

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Make sure that the GlobalAuth component is loaded before using this behavior otherwise it will save NULL values to the created_by and modified_by fields.

You can load the behavior by the follwing code:

public function initialize(array $config) {
    // code
    $this->addBehavior('Utils.WhoDidIt');
}

Registering the data

The behavior will use two fields: created_by and modified_by. Just create this fields in your database, and the behavior will add the user-id in the right field. You don't need to add this at you forms.

Changing the columns

You can change the fields in the config of your behavior:

public function initialize(array $config) {
    // code
    $this->addBehavior('Utils.WhoDidIt', [
        'created_by' => 'user_id',      // now the field 'user_id' will contain the user-id when created
        'modified_by' => false,         // the user who will modifie the post won't be registered
    ]);
}

The behavior will get the users id from the Auth-data in the Session.

Getting the data

The behavior will automatically get the user-data of the user who created and modified the post.

$data = $this->Model->get(1);
    
echo $data->createdBy->id;     // echo's the user-id of the user who created the entity
echo $data->modifiedBy->email; // echo's the email of the user who modified the entity

Changing the Model

Maybe are you using another Model instead of the default Model (Users). You can change the model in the config of your behavior:

public function initialize(array $config) {
    // code
    $this->addBehavior('Utils.WhoDidIt', [
        'userModel' => 'my_custom_model',
    ]);
}

Setting the fields

Sometimes you don't need every data of the user, it makes your queries much bigger and slower. So, you are able to define the fields you want of an user. When leaving empty, it will return all columns.

public function initialize(array $config) {
    // code
    $this->addBehavior('Utils.WhoDidIt', [
        'fields' => ['id', 'role_id', 'email'],
    ]);
}

The example above will only return the users id, role_id and email.

Changing the propertyNames

At default the CreatedBy-data will be stored under the createdBy key. In case you will override the created_by property there is a change you will get errors, because an entity can not be converted to an integer (which the created_by-column usually is). You are able to change the propertynames via this code:

public function initialize(array $config) {
    // code
    $this->addBehavior('Utils.WhoDidIt', [
        'createdByPropertyName' => 'createdBy_custom',
        'modifiedByPropertyName' => 'modifiedBy_custom',
    ]);
}

In this case the user who created the item is accessible via $data->createdBy_custom->id, and not via $data->createdBy->id. The created_by key will contain the original column-value, so that will be the users id. This example is for the modified_by too.

Auto Contain

By default the CreatedBy and ModifiedBy relations are contained automatically in your queries. You can unset them with:

public function initialize(array $config) {
    // code
    $this->addBehavior('Utils.WhoDidIt', [
        'contain' => false,
    ]);
}

From now on you can contain the relations when ever you want with:

$query->contain(['CreatedBy', 'ModifiedBy']);