From c63e1d8501ed4f16c9fcac5645a776c6999f65ff Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eric Peterson <eric@elpete.com>
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2026 06:00:22 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] Refresh database-generated attributes on save

Closes #58
---
 models/BaseEntity.cfc                         | 41 ++++++++++++++++++-
 .../app/models/DatabaseGeneratedUser.cfc      |  9 ++++
 .../specs/integration/BaseEntity/SaveSpec.cfc | 12 ++++++
 3 files changed, 61 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 tests/resources/app/models/DatabaseGeneratedUser.cfc

diff --git a/models/BaseEntity.cfc b/models/BaseEntity.cfc
index a3f7a943..f86d575f 100644
--- a/models/BaseEntity.cfc
+++ b/models/BaseEntity.cfc
@@ -1183,6 +1183,7 @@ component accessors="true" {
 						} ),
 					arguments.options
 				);
+			refreshAttributesOnSave();
 			assignOriginalAttributes( retrieveAttributesData() );
 			markLoaded();
 			fireEvent(
@@ -1217,8 +1218,9 @@ component accessors="true" {
 				result.result[ getParentDefinition().joincolumn ] = variables._data[ getParentDefinition().joinColumn ];
 			}
 			retrieveKeyType().postInsert( this, result );
-			assignOriginalAttributes( retrieveAttributesData() );
 			markLoaded();
+			refreshAttributesOnSave();
+			assignOriginalAttributes( retrieveAttributesData() );
 			fireEvent(
 				"postInsert",
 				{
@@ -1250,6 +1252,39 @@ component accessors="true" {
 		return this;
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Refreshes attributes whose values are generated or changed by the database
+	 * during persistence.
+	 */
+	private void function refreshAttributesOnSave() {
+		var attributesToRefresh = variables._attributes.filter( function( name, attribute ) {
+			return attribute.refreshOnSave;
+		} );
+
+		if ( attributesToRefresh.isEmpty() ) {
+			return;
+		}
+
+		var refreshedEntity = newQuery()
+			.withoutGlobalScope()
+			.where( function( q ) {
+				arrayZipEach( [ keyNames(), keyValues() ], function( keyName, keyValue ) {
+					q.where( keyName, keyValue );
+				} );
+			} )
+			.first();
+		if ( isNull( refreshedEntity ) ) {
+			return;
+		}
+
+		var refreshedData = refreshedEntity.retrieveAttributesData( withNulls = true );
+		attributesToRefresh.each( function( name, attribute ) {
+			var value                           = refreshedData[ attribute.column ];
+			variables._data[ attribute.column ] = isNull( value ) ? javacast( "null", "" ) : value;
+			variables[ attribute.name ]         = isNull( value ) ? javacast( "null", "" ) : value;
+		} );
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Deletes the entity from the database.
 	 * This function can only be called on loaded entities.
@@ -2973,12 +3008,16 @@ component accessors="true" {
 		param attr.sqltype        = "";
 		param attr.insert         = true;
 		param attr.update         = true;
+		param attr.refreshOnSave  = false;
 		param attr.virtual        = false;
 		param attr.exclude        = false;
 		param attr.isParentColumn = false;
 		if ( !isBoolean( attr.persistent ) ) {
 			attr.persistent = lCase( trim( attr.persistent & "" ) ) == "true";
 		}
+		if ( !isBoolean( attr.refreshOnSave ) ) {
+			attr.refreshOnSave = lCase( trim( attr.refreshOnSave & "" ) ) == "true";
+		}
 		variables._nullValues[ attr.name ] = attr.nullValue;
 		return arguments.attr;
 	}
diff --git a/tests/resources/app/models/DatabaseGeneratedUser.cfc b/tests/resources/app/models/DatabaseGeneratedUser.cfc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8dfd2902
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/resources/app/models/DatabaseGeneratedUser.cfc
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+component extends="quick.models.BaseEntity" accessors="true" table="users" {
+
+	property name="id";
+	property name="username";
+	property name="firstName"   column="first_name";
+	property name="lastName"    column="last_name";
+	property name="createdDate" column="created_date" refreshOnSave="true";
+
+}
diff --git a/tests/specs/integration/BaseEntity/SaveSpec.cfc b/tests/specs/integration/BaseEntity/SaveSpec.cfc
index 61a9d2ef..12cc9776 100644
--- a/tests/specs/integration/BaseEntity/SaveSpec.cfc
+++ b/tests/specs/integration/BaseEntity/SaveSpec.cfc
@@ -56,6 +56,18 @@ component extends="tests.resources.ModuleIntegrationSpec" {
 				expect( newUser.retrieveAttributesData() ).toHaveKey( "id" );
 			} );
 
+			it( "retrieves database-generated attributes marked to refresh on save", function() {
+				var newUser = getInstance( "DatabaseGeneratedUser" )
+					.setUsername( "database-timestamp-user" )
+					.setFirstName( "Database" )
+					.setLastName( "Timestamp" )
+					.save();
+
+				expect( newUser.getCreatedDate() ).notToBe( "" );
+				expect( newUser.getCreatedDate() ).toBeDate();
+				expect( newUser.isDirty( "createdDate" ) ).toBeFalse();
+			} );
+
 			it( "a saved entity is not dirty", function() {
 				var newUser = getInstance( "User" );
 				newUser.setUsername( "new_user" );