Updating entry WITHOUT updating timestamp
Is there a way to manually disable updating the timestamp on a special occasion? (eg: updating the entry to revise a blog post, but not to re-date it)
Sounds like you need to configure the default constraint so that it populates the column on insertion only:
DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
Changing it to only be this means that any revisions will not trigger the timestamp value to be updated. IE: If you created the blogpost yesterday, and corrected a typo today - the date in the column would still be for yesterday.
To make your table/timestamp auto-update:
ALTER TABLE myTableCHANGE myTimestampColumn myTimestampColumn TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;
To make it not auto-update:
ALTER TABLE myTableCHANGE myTimestampColumn myTimestampColumn TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;
NOTE: The "default current_timestamp" part just sets it to the current stamp at default time, since the field is not-null. You can remove both the not null and the default, if you like.