[mysql] Is there a MySQL option/feature to track history of changes to records?

You could create triggers to solve this. Here is a tutorial to do so (archived link).

Setting constraints and rules in the database is better than writing special code to handle the same task since it will prevent another developer from writing a different query that bypasses all of the special code and could leave your database with poor data integrity.

For a long time I was copying info to another table using a script since MySQL didn’t support triggers at the time. I have now found this trigger to be more effective at keeping track of everything.

This trigger will copy an old value to a history table if it is changed when someone edits a row. Editor ID and last mod are stored in the original table every time someone edits that row; the time corresponds to when it was changed to its current form.

DROP TRIGGER IF EXISTS history_trigger $$

CREATE TRIGGER history_trigger
BEFORE UPDATE ON clients
    FOR EACH ROW
    BEGIN
        IF OLD.first_name != NEW.first_name
        THEN
                INSERT INTO history_clients
                    (
                        client_id    ,
                        col          ,
                        value        ,
                        user_id      ,
                        edit_time
                    )
                    VALUES
                    (
                        NEW.client_id,
                        'first_name',
                        NEW.first_name,
                        NEW.editor_id,
                        NEW.last_mod
                    );
        END IF;

        IF OLD.last_name != NEW.last_name
        THEN
                INSERT INTO history_clients
                    (
                        client_id    ,
                        col          ,
                        value        ,
                        user_id      ,
                        edit_time
                    )
                    VALUES
                    (
                        NEW.client_id,
                        'last_name',
                        NEW.last_name,
                        NEW.editor_id,
                        NEW.last_mod
                    );
        END IF;

    END;
$$

Another solution would be to keep an Revision field and update this field on save. You could decide that the max is the newest revision, or that 0 is the most recent row. That's up to you.