Name history

[vangberg]

[WIP]

Tracking versions

This PR adds a Versioned concern. When included in a model, Version records are automatically created on create/update/delete, and a versions association is added to the model.

This is what an update to Name which changes proposed_in_id looks like:

>> p name.versions.last
#<Version:0x000000015401f158
 id: 20,
 record_type: "Name",
 record_id: 55876,
 operation: "update",
 changeset: {"proposed_in_id"=>[4482, 2667]},
 created_at: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 12:29:52.288092000 UTC +00:00>
irb(main):018> 

Tracking changes to etymology

A change to one etymology attribute should snapshot the current value of all etymology attributes ( + name which is used by full_etymology). This is done with versioned_together, which lets you specify which attributes should be tracked as a single attribute.

Public history

When rendering the history, we need to:

1. Only show history for some attributes -- other attributes are internal.
2. Group etymology changes together.
3. At a later point, fetch the history for associations.

This is all orchestrated by Name::PublicHistory.

UI

Todo

• Track changes to associations (placements, publications). Follow-up PR on its way.
• Thorough review of which attributes need to be whitelisted.
• Specific rendering rules for various attributes (see history_values)
• Review if we actually need to operation attribute.
• Should create/destroy dump all attributes in the version? I think so.

Value flow

Single attribute

Name#syllabication

nil → 'co.li'

↓ Version#changeset

{
  'syllabication' => [nil, 'co.li']
}

↓ PublicHistory#changes_for(version)

{
  'syllabication' => [nil, 'co.li']
}

Grouped etymology

Name#etymology_xx_description

'of the colon' → 'from the colon'

↓ Version#changeset — includes unchanged companions

{
  'name' => ['E. coli', 'E. coli'],
  'etymology_xx_lang' => ['N.L.', 'N.L.'],
  'etymology_xx_description' => ['of the colon', 'from the colon']
}

↓ PublicHistory#changes_for(version) — groups before/after snapshots

{
  'etymology' => [
    {
      'name' => 'E. coli',
      'etymology_xx_lang' => 'N.L.',
      'etymology_xx_description' => 'of the colon'
    },
    {
      'name' => 'E. coli',
      'etymology_xx_lang' => 'N.L.',
      'etymology_xx_description' => 'from the colon'
    }
  ]
}