Manual Tracking

By default, Aware hooks into global Eloquent events to track all models automatically. This means that any model you create, update, or delete etc. will be tracked automatically without you having to specify anything.

If you want to disable automatic tracking, you can do so by setting the auto option to false in the config/aware.php file.

Via Track method

Use the Tracker::track() method anytime you want to track changes manually even if tracking is disabled (track option set to false in the config/aware.php).

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use App\Models\User;
use CharlGottschalk\LaravelAware\Tracker;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function store(Request $request): Response
    {
        $user = User::create($request->all());
        Tracker::track($user, ChangeAction::CREATE);
    }
}

If you would like to be bound by the config and only track if track option set to true in the config/aware.php, you can use the Tracking::shouldTrackManually() method to check if tracking is enabled.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use App\Models\User;
use CharlGottschalk\LaravelAware\Tracker;
use CharlGottschalk\LaravelAware\Helpers\Tracking;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function store(Request $request): Response
    {
        $user = User::create($request->all());
        
        if (Tracking::shouldTrackManually()) {
            Tracker::track($user, ChangeAction::CREATE);
        }
    }
}

Via ObserverTracksChanges trait

You can also create an observer for the models you would like to track and add the ObserverTracksChanges trait to it.

TIP

Read more at Laravel Observers.

Use the ObserverTracksChanges trait in any model observer.

<?php

namespace App\Observers;

use App\Models\User;
use CharlGottschalk\Changes\Traits\ObserverTracksChanges;

class UserObserver
{
    use ObserverTracksChanges;
    ...

Implementation

Typically, when creating observers in Laravel you'll have a scaffolded file containing created, updated, deleted, etc. methods.

Since the ObserverTracksChanges trait overrides these methods you'll have collisions with the default Laravel methods.

Fresh observer

On a fresh observer, you can simply use the trait and remove the default methods if you require no implementation.

<?php

namespace App\Observers;

use App\Models\User;
use CharlGottschalk\Changes\Traits\ObserverTracksChanges;

class UserObserver
{
    use ObserverTracksChanges;
    ...

Existing observer

If you already have some implementation in any of the methods, you simply need to rename them to isCreated, isUpdated, isDeleted etc. The trait will automatically call those methods when the corresponding event is fired.

Example:

<?php

namespace App\Observers;

use App\Models\User;
use CharlGottschalk\Changes\Traits\ObserverTracksChanges;

class UserObserver
{
    use ObserverTracksChanges;

    /**
     * Handle the User "created" event.
     */
    public function isCreated(User $user): void
    {
        // ...
    }

    /**
     * Handle the User "updated" event.
     */
    public function isUpdated(User $user): void
    {
        // ...
    }

    /**
     * Handle the User "deleted" event.
     */
    public function isDeleted(User $user): void
    {
        // ...
    }

    /**
     * Handle the User "restored" event.
     */
    public function isRestored(User $user): void
    {
        // ...
    }

    /**
     * Handle the User "forceDeleted" event.
     */
    public function isForceDeleted(User $user): void
    {
        // ...
    }
}

If you have some implementation in any of the preceding event methods i.e. creating, updating, deleting etc., you can simply follow the same renaming and the trait will automatically call those methods when the corresponding event is fired.

Example:

<?php

namespace App\Observers;

use App\Models\User;
use CharlGottschalk\Changes\Traits\ObserverTracksChanges;

class UserObserver
{
    use ObserverTracksChanges;

    /**
     * Handle the User "creating" event.
     */
    public function isCreating(User $user): void
    {
        // ...
    }

    /**
     * Handle the User "updating" event.
     */
    public function isUpdating(User $user): void
    {
        // ...
    }

    /**
     * Handle the User "deleting" event.
     */
    public function isDeleting(User $user): void
    {
        // ...
    }

    /**
     * Handle the User "restoring" event.
     */
    public function isRestoring(User $user): void
    {
        // ...
    }

    /**
     * Handle the User "forceDeleting" event.
     */
    public function isForceDeleting(User $user): void
    {
        // ...
    }
}