Solidity accessing old logs

Question

I am trying to understand how to get the old values stored in blockchain. I need to prove the immutability and transparent feature to non-technical people. Here is my code.

    pragma solidity ^0.4.17;
        contract Inbox{
           string public message;

            function Inbox (string initialMessage) public {
                   message = initialMessage;
            }

           function setMessage(string newMessage) public{
                message = newMessage;
          }
 }

In above contract, whenever i call setMessage i set a new message for the message variable. For example, first time i had set it for "Test1". Second time i set it for "Test2" and so on. now i added a get function to read the value of message variable. The function always returns me the latest value set for message variable. Now my query is, is it possible to check all the values i set in past without using arrays. Just with the above example can i get all old logs or am I expecting something wrong.

Answer 1

Logs in Ethereum are a special construct, and have a specific meaning. You don't appear to be using any in your contract.

What you do seem to want is retrieving the state of the contract at some historical point. This is possible, provided the node you are connected to is able to access that state.

eth_call accepts a block number parameter (which defaults to the latest block), and will return the state at the given block.

Answer 2

It should be possible if you emit an event for every change

pragma solidity ^0.4.17;

contract Inbox {
    string public message;

    event NewMessage(string _message, uint _block, uint _timestamp, address _user);

    function Inbox (string initialMessage) public {
        message = initialMessage;
        emit NewMessage(initialMessage, block.number, block.timestamp, msg.sender);
    }

    function setMessage(string newMessage) public{
        message = newMessage;
        emit NewMessage(newMessage, block.number, block.timestamp, msg.sender);
    }
}

Now if you query NewMessage you should get the whole history of changes.