store all revisions of user metadata in wordpress

Discussion:

store all revisions of user metadata in wordpress - possible?

Gregory Lancaster

2013-08-09 21:19:09 UTC

i spend the last seven hours trying to find a to store all revisions of
*user* metadata. the idea is to allow a user to submit an update via form,
and maintain a historical record of all previous updates on a specific
page.

i have tried auto incrementing the meta_key and meta_id without success, as
well as several other strange variations in functions.php. is it possible
to keep a historical record in this way, and display it visually along with
the date each was submitted?

Jamie Currie

2013-08-09 21:32:08 UTC

Permalink

If you're referring to entries in the usermeta table, those aren't
timestamped so how would you show the changes? Or were you just thinking
to show the prior history, not worrying about when a change was made?

Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers

------ Original Message ------
From: "Gregory Lancaster" <***@gmail.com>
To: wp-***@lists.automattic.com
Sent: 8/9/2013 2:19:09 PM
Subject: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in wordpress
- possible?

Post by Gregory Lancaster
i spend the last seven hours trying to find a to store all revisions of
*user* metadata. the idea is to allow a user to submit an update via form,
and maintain a historical record of all previous updates on a specific
page.
i have tried auto incrementing the meta_key and meta_id without
success, as
well as several other strange variations in functions.php. is it
possible
to keep a historical record in this way, and display it visually along with
the date each was submitted?
_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers

Gregory Lancaster

2013-08-09 21:36:56 UTC

Permalink

time stamping it would be ideal, but its something that can maybe be added
later. the primary objective here is to keep a record of all updated user
metadata values. so if someone had the username Benderisgreat and later
updated it to LisaIsgreat i would have a historical record of both in sql
someplace, which i could then show on their profile page.

Post by Jamie Currie
If you're referring to entries in the usermeta table, those aren't
timestamped so how would you show the changes? Or were you just thinking to
show the prior history, not worrying about when a change was made?
Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo <
http://twitter.com/#!/**wunderdojo <http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers
------ Original Message ------
Sent: 8/9/2013 2:19:09 PM
Subject: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in wordpress -
possible?

Post by Gregory Lancaster
i spend the last seven hours trying to find a to store all revisions of
*user* metadata. the idea is to allow a user to submit an update via form,
and maintain a historical record of all previous updates on a specific
page.
i have tried auto incrementing the meta_key and meta_id without success, as
well as several other strange variations in functions.php. is it possible
to keep a historical record in this way, and display it visually along with
the date each was submitted?
______________________________**_________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/**mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers<http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers>

______________________________**_________________
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http://lists.automattic.com/**mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers<http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers>

Jamie Currie

2013-08-09 21:41:53 UTC

Permalink

The usermeta table only gives you two fields to work with -- meta_key
and meta_value. So you're not going to be able to do what you want using
that -- how would you know which is the current version of the
meta_value? There isn't any way to say that one of them is the most
recent.

The update_user_meta function simply calls update_metadata
(wp-includes/meta.php -- line 387) which has several action calls you
could hook into. That way you could simply add your own table and update
it each time the user_meta is updated, then pull your historical records
from there.

Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers

------ Original Message ------
From: "Gregory Lancaster" <***@gmail.com>
To: "wp-***@lists.automattic.com" <wp-***@lists.automattic.com>
Sent: 8/9/2013 2:36:56 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in
wordpress - possible?

Post by Gregory Lancaster
time stamping it would be ideal, but its something that can maybe be added
later. the primary objective here is to keep a record of all updated
user
metadata values. so if someone had the username Benderisgreat and later
updated it to LisaIsgreat i would have a historical record of both in sql
someplace, which i could then show on their profile page.

Post by Jamie Currie
If you're referring to entries in the usermeta table, those aren't
timestamped so how would you show the changes? Or were you just thinking to
show the prior history, not worrying about when a change was made?
Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo <
http://twitter.com/#!/**wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers
------ Original Message ------
Sent: 8/9/2013 2:19:09 PM
Subject: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in wordpress -
possible?

Post by Gregory Lancaster
i spend the last seven hours trying to find a to store all revisions of
*user* metadata. the idea is to allow a user to submit an update via form,
and maintain a historical record of all previous updates on a specific
page.
i have tried auto incrementing the meta_key and meta_id without
success,
as
well as several other strange variations in functions.php. is it possible
to keep a historical record in this way, and display it visually
along
with
the date each was submitted?
______________________________**_________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/**mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers<http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers>

______________________________**_________________
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http://lists.automattic.com/**mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers<http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers>

_______________________________________________
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http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers

Nicholas Ciske

2013-08-09 21:40:15 UTC

Permalink

Try storing all meta data for that user in a serialized array -- add entries indexed by meta key & timestamp whenever something changes, then query the history array to display change history for all or one item.

Make sure you avoid recursion and don't track the history of the history meta data (or store it in an option with the user_id in the key name).

_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

Post by Gregory Lancaster
i spend the last seven hours trying to find a to store all revisions of
*user* metadata. the idea is to allow a user to submit an update via form,
and maintain a historical record of all previous updates on a specific
page.
i have tried auto incrementing the meta_key and meta_id without success, as
well as several other strange variations in functions.php. is it possible
to keep a historical record in this way, and display it visually along with
the date each was submitted?

Jamie Currie

2013-08-09 22:00:32 UTC

Permalink

Interesting approach, wouldn't have thought to do it that way. Wouldn't
it make it challenging to do any kind of searching / filtering on the
metadata though?

Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers

------ Original Message ------
From: "Nicholas Ciske" <***@thoughtrefinery.com>
To: wp-***@lists.automattic.com
Sent: 8/9/2013 2:40:15 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in
wordpress - possible?

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Try storing all meta data for that user in a serialized array -- add
entries indexed by meta key & timestamp whenever something changes,
then query the history array to display change history for all or one
item.
Make sure you avoid recursion and don't track the history of the
history meta data (or store it in an option with the user_id in the key
name).
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

Post by Gregory Lancaster
i spend the last seven hours trying to find a to store all revisions of
*user* metadata. the idea is to allow a user to submit an update via form,
and maintain a historical record of all previous updates on a specific
page.
i have tried auto incrementing the meta_key and meta_id without success, as
well as several other strange variations in functions.php. is it
possible
to keep a historical record in this way, and display it visually along with
the date each was submitted?

_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers

Nicholas Ciske

2013-08-09 22:05:13 UTC

Permalink

Yes, my approach would only really work if you already knew the user id (or were looping through users) and just wanted to display history. Finding a user whose email used to be X would be difficult and hacky.

I was going for simple ;-)

A separate table would be far more flexible, but a lot more overhead code wise.

_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

Interesting approach, wouldn't have thought to do it that way. Wouldn't it make it challenging to do any kind of searching / filtering on the metadata though?
Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo <http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers
------ Original Message ------
Sent: 8/9/2013 2:40:15 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in wordpress - possible?

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Try storing all meta data for that user in a serialized array -- add entries indexed by meta key & timestamp whenever something changes, then query the history array to display change history for all or one item.
Make sure you avoid recursion and don't track the history of the history meta data (or store it in an option with the user_id in the key name).
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

Jamie Currie

2013-08-09 22:06:31 UTC

Permalink

I've wondered before why the meta tables don't timestamp -- would make a
world of things easier if they did and seems like it has a ton of
practical application.

Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers

------ Original Message ------
From: "Nicholas Ciske" <***@thoughtrefinery.com>
To: wp-***@lists.automattic.com
Sent: 8/9/2013 3:05:13 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in
wordpress - possible?

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Yes, my approach would only really work if you already knew the user id
(or were looping through users) and just wanted to display history.
Finding a user whose email used to be X would be difficult and hacky.
I was going for simple ;-)
A separate table would be far more flexible, but a lot more overhead code wise.
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

Post by Jamie Currie
Interesting approach, wouldn't have thought to do it that way.
Wouldn't it make it challenging to do any kind of searching /
filtering on the metadata though?
Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers
------ Original Message ------
Sent: 8/9/2013 2:40:15 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in wordpress - possible?

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Try storing all meta data for that user in a serialized array -- add
entries indexed by meta key & timestamp whenever something changes,
then query the history array to display change history for all or one
item.
Make sure you avoid recursion and don't track the history of the
history meta data (or store it in an option with the user_id in the
key name).
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers

Gregory Lancaster

2013-08-09 22:12:49 UTC

Permalink

Hey Jamie- Do you have time to code something like this? I saw you have a
business doing this and I am still learning php. Your skills would be
beneficial :-). or Nicks

Post by Jamie Currie
I've wondered before why the meta tables don't timestamp -- would make a
world of things easier if they did and seems like it has a ton of practical
application.
Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo <
http://twitter.com/#!/**wunderdojo <http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers
------ Original Message ------
Sent: 8/9/2013 3:05:13 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in wordpress - possible?

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Yes, my approach would only really work if you already knew the user id
(or were looping through users) and just wanted to display history. Finding
a user whose email used to be X would be difficult and hacky.
I was going for simple ;-)
A separate table would be far more flexible, but a lot more overhead code wise.
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske
Interesting approach, wouldn't have thought to do it that way. Wouldn't

Post by Jamie Currie
it make it challenging to do any kind of searching / filtering on the
metadata though?
Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo <
http://twitter.com/#!/**wunderdojo <http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers
------ Original Message ------
Sent: 8/9/2013 2:40:15 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in
wordpress - possible?

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Try storing all meta data for that user in a serialized array -- add
entries indexed by meta key & timestamp whenever something changes, then
query the history array to display change history for all or one item.
Make sure you avoid recursion and don't track the history of the
history meta data (or store it in an option with the user_id in the key
name).
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

______________________________**_________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/**mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers<http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers>

Jamie Currie

2013-08-09 22:17:34 UTC

Permalink

Sure, I could whip something up. Want to email off list or give a ring?

Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers

------ Original Message ------
From: "Gregory Lancaster" <***@gmail.com>
To: "wp-***@lists.automattic.com" <wp-***@lists.automattic.com>
Sent: 8/9/2013 3:12:49 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in
wordpress - possible?

Hey Jamie- Do you have time to code something like this? I saw you have
a
business doing this and I am still learning php. Your skills would be
beneficial :-). or Nicks

Post by Jamie Currie
I've wondered before why the meta tables don't timestamp -- would make a
world of things easier if they did and seems like it has a ton of practical
application.
Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo <
http://twitter.com/#!/**wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers
------ Original Message ------
Sent: 8/9/2013 3:05:13 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in wordpress - possible?

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Yes, my approach would only really work if you already knew the user id
(or were looping through users) and just wanted to display history. Finding
a user whose email used to be X would be difficult and hacky.
I was going for simple ;-)
A separate table would be far more flexible, but a lot more overhead
code
wise.
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske
Interesting approach, wouldn't have thought to do it that way. Wouldn't

Post by Jamie Currie
it make it challenging to do any kind of searching / filtering on the
metadata though?
Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> |
twitter.com/wunderdojo <
http://twitter.com/#!/**wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers
------ Original Message ------
Sent: 8/9/2013 2:40:15 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in
wordpress - possible?

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Try storing all meta data for that user in a serialized array -- add
entries indexed by meta key & timestamp whenever something changes, then
query the history array to display change history for all or one item.
Make sure you avoid recursion and don't track the history of the
history meta data (or store it in an option with the user_id in the key
name).
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

______________________________**_________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/**mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers<http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers>

_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers

Gregory Lancaster

2013-08-09 22:19:23 UTC

Permalink

or- if there is a more effecient method of storing userdata? An external
database seems like it might be easier to manage than this, but I dont know
if its possible to hook the logged in users username to their information
and have it displayed back for them.

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Yes, my approach would only really work if you already knew the user id
(or were looping through users) and just wanted to display history. Finding
a user whose email used to be X would be difficult and hacky.
I was going for simple ;-)
A separate table would be far more flexible, but a lot more overhead code wise.
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske
Interesting approach, wouldn't have thought to do it that way. Wouldn't

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Try storing all meta data for that user in a serialized array -- add
entries indexed by meta key & timestamp whenever something changes, then
query the history array to display change history for all or one item.
Make sure you avoid recursion and don't track the history of the
history meta data (or store it in an option with the user_id in the key
name).
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

______________________________**_________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/**mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers<http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers>

Jamie Currie

2013-08-09 22:22:59 UTC

Permalink

Best bet is probably just adding a custom table. No matter how you
tackle it you're not going to be able to store / retrieve chronological
usermeta using the built in WP functions -- it's just not set up for
that.

I built a member management platform on WP that is used by various
businesses (health clubs, things like that) to manage member
registration, payments, front desk check in, etc. I opted to go with a
few custom tables for just this reason -- made it way easier to track
info. and you can optimize with db indexes, etc.

Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers

------ Original Message ------
From: "Gregory Lancaster" <***@gmail.com>
To: "wp-***@lists.automattic.com" <wp-***@lists.automattic.com>
Sent: 8/9/2013 3:19:23 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in
wordpress - possible?

or- if there is a more effecient method of storing userdata? An
external
database seems like it might be easier to manage than this, but I dont know
if its possible to hook the logged in users username to their
information
and have it displayed back for them.

Post by Jamie Currie
I've wondered before why the meta tables don't timestamp -- would make a
world of things easier if they did and seems like it has a ton of practical
application.
Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> | twitter.com/wunderdojo <
http://twitter.com/#!/**wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers
------ Original Message ------
Sent: 8/9/2013 3:05:13 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in wordpress - possible?

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Yes, my approach would only really work if you already knew the user id
(or were looping through users) and just wanted to display history. Finding
a user whose email used to be X would be difficult and hacky.
I was going for simple ;-)
A separate table would be far more flexible, but a lot more overhead
code
wise.
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske
Interesting approach, wouldn't have thought to do it that way. Wouldn't

Post by Jamie Currie
it make it challenging to do any kind of searching / filtering on the
metadata though?
Jamie Currie
Founder / CEO
wunderdojo
wunderdojo.com <http://www.wunderdojo.com> |
twitter.com/wunderdojo <
http://twitter.com/#!/**wunderdojo
<http://twitter.com/#!/wunderdojo>>
tel: 949-734-0758
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Suite 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Master web & app developers
------ Original Message ------
Sent: 8/9/2013 2:40:15 PM
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] store all revisions of user metadata in
wordpress - possible?

Post by Nicholas Ciske
Try storing all meta data for that user in a serialized array -- add
entries indexed by meta key & timestamp whenever something changes, then
query the history array to display change history for all or one item.
Make sure you avoid recursion and don't track the history of the
history meta data (or store it in an option with the user_id in the key
name).
_________________________
Nick Ciske
http://thoughtrefinery.com/
@nciske

______________________________**_________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/**mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers<http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers>

_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers