[5.5] Model can work without updated_at column

[antonkomarev]

Related to: #20901 and #19627 (comment)

Adds ability to define if model has no updated_at column.

If $withoutUpdatedAt property exists and true - skip handling of updated_at column updates.

ModelWithoutUpdatedAt extends Model
{
    public $withoutUpdatedAt = true;
}

[taylorotwell]

No plans to allow only 1 timestamp.

[antonkomarev]

Is there any reason of it? Could this question be a bit more illuminated to let people know why they'd better prefer to have updated_at columns in all their models? Thanks.

[BrandonSurowiec]

@a-komarev In one of my legacy projects that I was converting to Laravel I made the model only use the created at timestamp by adding:

    /**
     * The name of the "updated at" column.
     *
     * @var string
     */
    const UPDATED_AT = null;

Into my model. I'm sure if you switch that to const CREATED_AT = null; you can get the behavior you desire.

(Edit: I just noticed the PR you mentioned that broke it. ) Looks like you figured out a nice workaround by using a mutator to make setCreatedAtAttribute do nothing. #20901 (comment)