Renaming the created_at, updated_at columns of ActiveRecord/Rails

Question

I want to rename the timestamp columns defined in timestamp.rb . Can the methods of timestamp.rb be overwritten? And what has to be done in the application that the module w

Answer 1

An updated anwser for Rails >= 5.1. I would suggest to use the ApplicationRecord that is available by default in your application and define the following:

class ApplicationRecord < ActiveRecord::Base
  self.abstract_class = true

  class << self
    private

    def timestamp_attributes_for_create
      super << 'my_created_at_column'
    end

    def timestamp_attributes_for_update
      super << 'my_updated_at_column'
    end
  end
end

Note that you can also use this block on a specific model if you don't want to configure it for all your models.

Note also that you should use strings and not symbols.