Odd issue with retrieving, formatting and displaying dates

[Kris Willis]

Hi there,

I'm currently writing a CRUD system which includes fields for dates. I
have the creation of records working fine, although I am having some
issues working with the dates when retrieving them from the database and
setting the form values with them ready for updating.

The dates are being stored in a date field in the database (YYYY-MM-DD),
but using the English formatting (DD/MM/YYYY) within the user interface.

The problem I am having is that I can retrieve almost all dates fine and
display them in the form fields without issue, but dates where the day
and month digits are the same (i.e. 2010-05-05) refuse to be reformatted
(to 05/05/2010).

I'm interfacing with the database via Doctrine. In my controller I'm
currently fetching the record by it's ID field and replacing the dates
within the object with the English formatting using a custom action
helper before passing it to the form for population.

Doctrine Model: http://pastie.org/private/8dsacq6wuxcfdxb88t9s3q
Controller Action: http://pastie.org/private/ois3voinrkra6suc6hvdg
Action Helper: http://pastie.org/private/tlkr7y5taqfyinpyjxlzg
Form: http://pastie.org/private/xhzwnbkfkh5cegqhfjow

After messing around with it for a while, I can manually set the date
string in the object within my controller to be 02/02/2010 for example,
which is passed to the form fine, but if I change it to 03/03/2010 and
the original value in the database is 03/03/2010, the form will display
the original MySQL date of 2010-03-03. I can't figure out why this is
happening to this specific pattern of dates!

I have concocted a workaround which involves setting the dates within
the retrieved object to null, and then setting them to the English
formatted date (http://pastie.org/private/4ojzolzrm7f6vm5ixeqlw), but
I'd prefer to figure out why I am having this issue in the first place
and how to resolve it properly.

Any help is much appreciated.

Regards,
Kris



Environment:
Ubuntu 10.04
Apache 2.2.14
MySQL 5.1.41
PHP 5.3.2
Zend Framework 1.10.3
Doctrine 1.2.2

[ixti]

Hello,

To solve such problem I was overriding setters and getters of dates right in
my models, something like this:

class MyModel extends Doctrine_Record
{
    public function setTableDefinition()
    {
        // ...
        $this->hasColumn('some_date', 'date');
        // ...
    }

    public function getSomeDate()
    {
        return new Zend_Date($this->_get('some_date'), 'YYYY-MM-dd');
    }

    public function setSomeDate($value)
    {
        if ($value instanceof Zend_Date) {
            $value = $value->toString('YYYY-MM-dd');
        } else if (! Zend_Date::isDate($value)) {
            throw new App_Exception('Unknown some_date format');
        } else {
            throw new App_Exception('Unsupported type of some_date');
        }

        $this->_set('some_date', $value);
    }
}


2010/5/30 Kris Willis <[hidden email]>:

> Hi there,
>
> I'm currently writing a CRUD system which includes fields for dates. I have
> the creation of records working fine, although I am having some issues
> working with the dates when retrieving them from the database and setting
> the form values with them ready for updating.
>
> The dates are being stored in a date field in the database (YYYY-MM-DD), but
> using the English formatting (DD/MM/YYYY) within the user interface.
>
> The problem I am having is that I can retrieve almost all dates fine and
> display them in the form fields without issue, but dates where the day and
> month digits are the same (i.e. 2010-05-05) refuse to be reformatted (to
> 05/05/2010).
>
> I'm interfacing with the database via Doctrine. In my controller I'm
> currently fetching the record by it's ID field and replacing the dates
> within the object with the English formatting using a custom action helper
> before passing it to the form for population.
>
> Doctrine Model: http://pastie.org/private/8dsacq6wuxcfdxb88t9s3q
> Controller Action: http://pastie.org/private/ois3voinrkra6suc6hvdg
> Action Helper: http://pastie.org/private/tlkr7y5taqfyinpyjxlzg
> Form: http://pastie.org/private/xhzwnbkfkh5cegqhfjow
>
> After messing around with it for a while, I can manually set the date string
> in the object within my controller to be 02/02/2010 for example, which is
> passed to the form fine, but if I change it to 03/03/2010 and the original
> value in the database is 03/03/2010, the form will display the original
> MySQL date of 2010-03-03. I can't figure out why this is happening to this
> specific pattern of dates!
>
> I have concocted a workaround which involves setting the dates within the
> retrieved object to null, and then setting them to the English formatted
> date (http://pastie.org/private/4ojzolzrm7f6vm5ixeqlw), but I'd prefer to
> figure out why I am having this issue in the first place and how to resolve
> it properly.
>
> Any help is much appreciated.
>
> Regards,
> Kris
>
>
>
> Environment:
> Ubuntu 10.04
> Apache 2.2.14
> MySQL 5.1.41
> PHP 5.3.2
> Zend Framework 1.10.3
> Doctrine 1.2.2
>
>

--
Sincerely yours,
Aleksey V. Zapparov A.K.A. ixti
FSF Member #7118
Mobile Phone: [phone]
Homepage: http://www.ixti.ru
JID: [hidden email]

*Origin: Happy Hacking!

[Kris Willis]

Thank you Aleksey, this is a much better approach! It has also forced me
into reading up on Zend_Date, and it would appear using it to handle my
dates throughout my application will be beneficial too.

Thanks again.

On 30/05/10 23:20, Aleksey Zapparov wrote:

> Hello,
>
> To solve such problem I was overriding setters and getters of dates right in
> my models, something like this:
>
> class MyModel extends Doctrine_Record
> {
>      public function setTableDefinition()
>      {
>          // ...
>          $this->hasColumn('some_date', 'date');
>          // ...
>      }
>
>      public function getSomeDate()
>      {
>          return new Zend_Date($this->_get('some_date'), 'YYYY-MM-dd');
>      }
>
>      public function setSomeDate($value)
>      {
>          if ($value instanceof Zend_Date) {
>              $value = $value->toString('YYYY-MM-dd');
>          } else if (! Zend_Date::isDate($value)) {
>              throw new App_Exception('Unknown some_date format');
>          } else {
>              throw new App_Exception('Unsupported type of some_date');
>          }
>
>          $this->_set('some_date', $value);
>      }
> }
>
>
> 2010/5/30 Kris Willis<[hidden email]>:
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I'm currently writing a CRUD system which includes fields for dates. I have
>> the creation of records working fine, although I am having some issues
>> working with the dates when retrieving them from the database and setting
>> the form values with them ready for updating.
>>
>> The dates are being stored in a date field in the database (YYYY-MM-DD), but
>> using the English formatting (DD/MM/YYYY) within the user interface.
>>
>> The problem I am having is that I can retrieve almost all dates fine and
>> display them in the form fields without issue, but dates where the day and
>> month digits are the same (i.e. 2010-05-05) refuse to be reformatted (to
>> 05/05/2010).
>>
>> I'm interfacing with the database via Doctrine. In my controller I'm
>> currently fetching the record by it's ID field and replacing the dates
>> within the object with the English formatting using a custom action helper
>> before passing it to the form for population.
>>
>> Doctrine Model: http://pastie.org/private/8dsacq6wuxcfdxb88t9s3q
>> Controller Action: http://pastie.org/private/ois3voinrkra6suc6hvdg
>> Action Helper: http://pastie.org/private/tlkr7y5taqfyinpyjxlzg
>> Form: http://pastie.org/private/xhzwnbkfkh5cegqhfjow
>>
>> After messing around with it for a while, I can manually set the date string
>> in the object within my controller to be 02/02/2010 for example, which is
>> passed to the form fine, but if I change it to 03/03/2010 and the original
>> value in the database is 03/03/2010, the form will display the original
>> MySQL date of 2010-03-03. I can't figure out why this is happening to this
>> specific pattern of dates!
>>
>> I have concocted a workaround which involves setting the dates within the
>> retrieved object to null, and then setting them to the English formatted
>> date (http://pastie.org/private/4ojzolzrm7f6vm5ixeqlw), but I'd prefer to
>> figure out why I am having this issue in the first place and how to resolve
>> it properly.
>>
>> Any help is much appreciated.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Kris
>>
>>
>>
>> Environment:
>> Ubuntu 10.04
>> Apache 2.2.14
>> MySQL 5.1.41
>> PHP 5.3.2
>> Zend Framework 1.10.3
>> Doctrine 1.2.2
>>
>>
>
>
>

[ixti]

Hello,

As I told you privately (when I pressed wrong button again :)) first sample is
full of bugs. So the correct version of date field muttator should looks like:
http://gist.github.com/421508

Also I have spent some time and found more complex and clean way to
achieve this and stay DRY :)) Simples version of this can be achieved with
help of Doctrine_Record_Filter: http://gist.github.com/422331

And finally the complex one: http://gist.github.com/422387

With complex version you receive ability to do something like this:

$person = new Person;
$person->birthday = new Zend_Date('01.01.1982', 'dd-MM-YYYY');
$person->birthday->addMonth(10);
$person->save();

And as a cover letter you can read my blog post which is some kind of
mind/idea flow from first to last: http://blog.ixti.ru/?p=407

Hope this will be helpfull for somebody :))


2010/5/31 Kris Willis <[hidden email]>:

> Thank you Aleksey, this is a much better approach! It has also forced me
> into reading up on Zend_Date, and it would appear using it to handle my
> dates throughout my application will be beneficial too.
>
> Thanks again.
>
> On 30/05/10 23:20, Aleksey Zapparov wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> To solve such problem I was overriding setters and getters of dates right
>> in
>> my models, something like this:
>>
>> class MyModel extends Doctrine_Record
>> {
>>     public function setTableDefinition()
>>     {
>>         // ...
>>         $this->hasColumn('some_date', 'date');
>>         // ...
>>     }
>>
>>     public function getSomeDate()
>>     {
>>         return new Zend_Date($this->_get('some_date'), 'YYYY-MM-dd');
>>     }
>>
>>     public function setSomeDate($value)
>>     {
>>         if ($value instanceof Zend_Date) {
>>             $value = $value->toString('YYYY-MM-dd');
>>         } else if (! Zend_Date::isDate($value)) {
>>             throw new App_Exception('Unknown some_date format');
>>         } else {
>>             throw new App_Exception('Unsupported type of some_date');
>>         }
>>
>>         $this->_set('some_date', $value);
>>     }
>> }
>>
>>
>> 2010/5/30 Kris Willis<[hidden email]>:
>>>
>>> Hi there,
>>>
>>> I'm currently writing a CRUD system which includes fields for dates. I
>>> have
>>> the creation of records working fine, although I am having some issues
>>> working with the dates when retrieving them from the database and setting
>>> the form values with them ready for updating.
>>>
>>> The dates are being stored in a date field in the database (YYYY-MM-DD),
>>> but
>>> using the English formatting (DD/MM/YYYY) within the user interface.
>>>
>>> The problem I am having is that I can retrieve almost all dates fine and
>>> display them in the form fields without issue, but dates where the day
>>> and
>>> month digits are the same (i.e. 2010-05-05) refuse to be reformatted (to
>>> 05/05/2010).
>>>
>>> I'm interfacing with the database via Doctrine. In my controller I'm
>>> currently fetching the record by it's ID field and replacing the dates
>>> within the object with the English formatting using a custom action
>>> helper
>>> before passing it to the form for population.
>>>
>>> Doctrine Model: http://pastie.org/private/8dsacq6wuxcfdxb88t9s3q
>>> Controller Action: http://pastie.org/private/ois3voinrkra6suc6hvdg
>>> Action Helper: http://pastie.org/private/tlkr7y5taqfyinpyjxlzg
>>> Form: http://pastie.org/private/xhzwnbkfkh5cegqhfjow
>>>
>>> After messing around with it for a while, I can manually set the date
>>> string
>>> in the object within my controller to be 02/02/2010 for example, which is
>>> passed to the form fine, but if I change it to 03/03/2010 and the
>>> original
>>> value in the database is 03/03/2010, the form will display the original
>>> MySQL date of 2010-03-03. I can't figure out why this is happening to
>>> this
>>> specific pattern of dates!
>>>
>>> I have concocted a workaround which involves setting the dates within the
>>> retrieved object to null, and then setting them to the English formatted
>>> date (http://pastie.org/private/4ojzolzrm7f6vm5ixeqlw), but I'd prefer to
>>> figure out why I am having this issue in the first place and how to
>>> resolve
>>> it properly.
>>>
>>> Any help is much appreciated.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Kris
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Environment:
>>> Ubuntu 10.04
>>> Apache 2.2.14
>>> MySQL 5.1.41
>>> PHP 5.3.2
>>> Zend Framework 1.10.3
>>> Doctrine 1.2.2
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>

--
Sincerely yours,
Aleksey V. Zapparov A.K.A. ixti
FSF Member #7118
Mobile Phone: [phone]
Homepage: http://www.ixti.ru
JID: [hidden email]

*Origin: Happy Hacking!

[Kris Willis]

Thank you for your input Aleksey, very much appreciated :)

On 02/06/10 17:22, Aleksey Zapparov wrote:

> Hello,
>
> As I told you privately (when I pressed wrong button again :)) first sample is
> full of bugs. So the correct version of date field muttator should looks like:
> http://gist.github.com/421508
>
> Also I have spent some time and found more complex and clean way to
> achieve this and stay DRY :)) Simples version of this can be achieved with
> help of Doctrine_Record_Filter: http://gist.github.com/422331
>
> And finally the complex one: http://gist.github.com/422387
>
> With complex version you receive ability to do something like this:
>
> $person = new Person;
> $person->birthday = new Zend_Date('01.01.1982', 'dd-MM-YYYY');
> $person->birthday->addMonth(10);
> $person->save();
>
> And as a cover letter you can read my blog post which is some kind of
> mind/idea flow from first to last: http://blog.ixti.ru/?p=407
>
> Hope this will be helpfull for somebody :))
>
>
> 2010/5/31 Kris Willis<[hidden email]>:
>> Thank you Aleksey, this is a much better approach! It has also forced me
>> into reading up on Zend_Date, and it would appear using it to handle my
>> dates throughout my application will be beneficial too.
>>
>> Thanks again.
>>
>> On 30/05/10 23:20, Aleksey Zapparov wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> To solve such problem I was overriding setters and getters of dates right
>>> in
>>> my models, something like this:
>>>
>>> class MyModel extends Doctrine_Record
>>> {
>>>      public function setTableDefinition()
>>>      {
>>>          // ...
>>>          $this->hasColumn('some_date', 'date');
>>>          // ...
>>>      }
>>>
>>>      public function getSomeDate()
>>>      {
>>>          return new Zend_Date($this->_get('some_date'), 'YYYY-MM-dd');
>>>      }
>>>
>>>      public function setSomeDate($value)
>>>      {
>>>          if ($value instanceof Zend_Date) {
>>>              $value = $value->toString('YYYY-MM-dd');
>>>          } else if (! Zend_Date::isDate($value)) {
>>>              throw new App_Exception('Unknown some_date format');
>>>          } else {
>>>              throw new App_Exception('Unsupported type of some_date');
>>>          }
>>>
>>>          $this->_set('some_date', $value);
>>>      }
>>> }
>>>
>>>
>>> 2010/5/30 Kris Willis<[hidden email]>:
>>>>
>>>> Hi there,
>>>>
>>>> I'm currently writing a CRUD system which includes fields for dates. I
>>>> have
>>>> the creation of records working fine, although I am having some issues
>>>> working with the dates when retrieving them from the database and setting
>>>> the form values with them ready for updating.
>>>>
>>>> The dates are being stored in a date field in the database (YYYY-MM-DD),
>>>> but
>>>> using the English formatting (DD/MM/YYYY) within the user interface.
>>>>
>>>> The problem I am having is that I can retrieve almost all dates fine and
>>>> display them in the form fields without issue, but dates where the day
>>>> and
>>>> month digits are the same (i.e. 2010-05-05) refuse to be reformatted (to
>>>> 05/05/2010).
>>>>
>>>> I'm interfacing with the database via Doctrine. In my controller I'm
>>>> currently fetching the record by it's ID field and replacing the dates
>>>> within the object with the English formatting using a custom action
>>>> helper
>>>> before passing it to the form for population.
>>>>
>>>> Doctrine Model: http://pastie.org/private/8dsacq6wuxcfdxb88t9s3q
>>>> Controller Action: http://pastie.org/private/ois3voinrkra6suc6hvdg
>>>> Action Helper: http://pastie.org/private/tlkr7y5taqfyinpyjxlzg
>>>> Form: http://pastie.org/private/xhzwnbkfkh5cegqhfjow
>>>>
>>>> After messing around with it for a while, I can manually set the date
>>>> string
>>>> in the object within my controller to be 02/02/2010 for example, which is
>>>> passed to the form fine, but if I change it to 03/03/2010 and the
>>>> original
>>>> value in the database is 03/03/2010, the form will display the original
>>>> MySQL date of 2010-03-03. I can't figure out why this is happening to
>>>> this
>>>> specific pattern of dates!
>>>>
>>>> I have concocted a workaround which involves setting the dates within the
>>>> retrieved object to null, and then setting them to the English formatted
>>>> date (http://pastie.org/private/4ojzolzrm7f6vm5ixeqlw), but I'd prefer to
>>>> figure out why I am having this issue in the first place and how to
>>>> resolve
>>>> it properly.
>>>>
>>>> Any help is much appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Kris
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Environment:
>>>> Ubuntu 10.04
>>>> Apache 2.2.14
>>>> MySQL 5.1.41
>>>> PHP 5.3.2
>>>> Zend Framework 1.10.3
>>>> Doctrine 1.2.2
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>

[ixti]

Hello,

It's me again :)) Once I started to implement proposed variant on
one of my projects I found some things that were boring me :)) So
after small investigation I found a better solution:
http://blog.ixti.ru/?p=417

So with this solution you don't need App_Record class at all. All
you need is to attach filter to the model you want to be able to
work with date fields as with Zend_Date objects.


2010/6/2 Kris Willis <[hidden email]>:

> Thank you for your input Aleksey, very much appreciated :)
>
> On 02/06/10 17:22, Aleksey Zapparov wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> As I told you privately (when I pressed wrong button again :)) first
>> sample is
>> full of bugs. So the correct version of date field muttator should looks
>> like:
>> http://gist.github.com/421508
>>
>> Also I have spent some time and found more complex and clean way to
>> achieve this and stay DRY :)) Simples version of this can be achieved with
>> help of Doctrine_Record_Filter: http://gist.github.com/422331
>>
>> And finally the complex one: http://gist.github.com/422387
>>
>> With complex version you receive ability to do something like this:
>>
>> $person = new Person;
>> $person->birthday = new Zend_Date('01.01.1982', 'dd-MM-YYYY');
>> $person->birthday->addMonth(10);
>> $person->save();
>>
>> And as a cover letter you can read my blog post which is some kind of
>> mind/idea flow from first to last: http://blog.ixti.ru/?p=407
>>
>> Hope this will be helpfull for somebody :))
>>
>>
>> 2010/5/31 Kris Willis<[hidden email]>:
>>>
>>> Thank you Aleksey, this is a much better approach! It has also forced me
>>> into reading up on Zend_Date, and it would appear using it to handle my
>>> dates throughout my application will be beneficial too.
>>>
>>> Thanks again.
>>>
>>> On 30/05/10 23:20, Aleksey Zapparov wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> To solve such problem I was overriding setters and getters of dates
>>>> right
>>>> in
>>>> my models, something like this:
>>>>
>>>> class MyModel extends Doctrine_Record
>>>> {
>>>>     public function setTableDefinition()
>>>>     {
>>>>         // ...
>>>>         $this->hasColumn('some_date', 'date');
>>>>         // ...
>>>>     }
>>>>
>>>>     public function getSomeDate()
>>>>     {
>>>>         return new Zend_Date($this->_get('some_date'), 'YYYY-MM-dd');
>>>>     }
>>>>
>>>>     public function setSomeDate($value)
>>>>     {
>>>>         if ($value instanceof Zend_Date) {
>>>>             $value = $value->toString('YYYY-MM-dd');
>>>>         } else if (! Zend_Date::isDate($value)) {
>>>>             throw new App_Exception('Unknown some_date format');
>>>>         } else {
>>>>             throw new App_Exception('Unsupported type of some_date');
>>>>         }
>>>>
>>>>         $this->_set('some_date', $value);
>>>>     }
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> 2010/5/30 Kris Willis<[hidden email]>:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi there,
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm currently writing a CRUD system which includes fields for dates. I
>>>>> have
>>>>> the creation of records working fine, although I am having some issues
>>>>> working with the dates when retrieving them from the database and
>>>>> setting
>>>>> the form values with them ready for updating.
>>>>>
>>>>> The dates are being stored in a date field in the database
>>>>> (YYYY-MM-DD),
>>>>> but
>>>>> using the English formatting (DD/MM/YYYY) within the user interface.
>>>>>
>>>>> The problem I am having is that I can retrieve almost all dates fine
>>>>> and
>>>>> display them in the form fields without issue, but dates where the day
>>>>> and
>>>>> month digits are the same (i.e. 2010-05-05) refuse to be reformatted
>>>>> (to
>>>>> 05/05/2010).
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm interfacing with the database via Doctrine. In my controller I'm
>>>>> currently fetching the record by it's ID field and replacing the dates
>>>>> within the object with the English formatting using a custom action
>>>>> helper
>>>>> before passing it to the form for population.
>>>>>
>>>>> Doctrine Model: http://pastie.org/private/8dsacq6wuxcfdxb88t9s3q
>>>>> Controller Action: http://pastie.org/private/ois3voinrkra6suc6hvdg
>>>>> Action Helper: http://pastie.org/private/tlkr7y5taqfyinpyjxlzg
>>>>> Form: http://pastie.org/private/xhzwnbkfkh5cegqhfjow
>>>>>
>>>>> After messing around with it for a while, I can manually set the date
>>>>> string
>>>>> in the object within my controller to be 02/02/2010 for example, which
>>>>> is
>>>>> passed to the form fine, but if I change it to 03/03/2010 and the
>>>>> original
>>>>> value in the database is 03/03/2010, the form will display the original
>>>>> MySQL date of 2010-03-03. I can't figure out why this is happening to
>>>>> this
>>>>> specific pattern of dates!
>>>>>
>>>>> I have concocted a workaround which involves setting the dates within
>>>>> the
>>>>> retrieved object to null, and then setting them to the English
>>>>> formatted
>>>>> date (http://pastie.org/private/4ojzolzrm7f6vm5ixeqlw), but I'd prefer
>>>>> to
>>>>> figure out why I am having this issue in the first place and how to
>>>>> resolve
>>>>> it properly.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any help is much appreciated.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> Kris
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Environment:
>>>>> Ubuntu 10.04
>>>>> Apache 2.2.14
>>>>> MySQL 5.1.41
>>>>> PHP 5.3.2
>>>>> Zend Framework 1.10.3
>>>>> Doctrine 1.2.2
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>

--
Sincerely yours,
Aleksey V. Zapparov A.K.A. ixti
FSF Member #7118
Mobile Phone: [phone]
Homepage: http://www.ixti.ru
JID: [hidden email]

*Origin: Happy Hacking!