This is a really old post. I’ve wrote a new one which you can find it here.
Here I would like to show you a behaviour which will help you to handle different date format than yyyy-mm-dd supported from the database. The reason why I created this behaviour is because in most of my projects I had a requirement to display the date format in human readable format.
So, without extra words here is the behaviour class /Update: thanks to Shark from the comments below we have datetime support as well/:
/**
* Prevent deletion if child record found
*
* @author Nik Chankov
* @url http://nik.chankov.net
* @see http://nik.chankov.net/2007/12/20/using-different-date-format-in-cakephp-12/
*/
class DateFormatterBehavior extends ModelBehavior {
/**
* Class Vars
* All these variables can be set from Configure class
*/
//Data format for humans
var $dateFormat = 'dd/mm/yyyy';
//Dataformat for database
var $databaseFormat = 'yyyy-mm-dd';
//delimeted for humans
var $delimiterDateFormat = '/';
//delimiter for database
var $delimiterDatabaseFormat = '-';
//delimiter between date and time
var $delimiterDateTimeFormat = ' ';
/**
* Empty Setup Function
*/
function setup(&$model) {
//Getting user defined vars
$dateFormat = Configure::read('DateBehaviour.dateFormat');
if($dateFormat != null){
$this->dateFormat = $dateFormat;
}
$databaseFormat = Configure::read('DateBehaviour.databaseFormat');
if($databaseFormat != null){
$this->databaseFormat = $databaseFormat;
}
$delimiterDateFormat = Configure::read('DateBehaviour.delimiterDateFormat');
if($delimiterDateFormat != null){
$this->delimiterDateFormat = $delimiterDateFormat;
}
$delimiterDatabaseFormat = Configure::read('DateBehaviour.delimiterDatabaseFormat');
if($delimiterDatabaseFormat != null){
$this->delimiterDatabaseFormat = $delimiterDatabaseFormat;
}
$delimiterDateTimeFormat = Configure::read('DateBehaviour.delimiterDateTimeFormat');
if($delimiterDateTimeFormat != null){
$this->delimiterDateTimeFormat = $delimiterDateTimeFormat;
}
$this->model = $model;
}
/**
* Function which convert one date from format1 to format2
* basically this function play with those three elements of the date - dd, mm, yyyy
* with delimiter you define which one of the elements is where
*
* @param string $date date string formated with format1
* @param string $format1 format in which is formatted the $date variable by if it's comming from database is yyyy-mm-dd
* @param string $format2 new format for the date.
* @param char $delimiter separater between different elements of the date string /i.e. dash (-), dot(.), space ( ), etc/
* @return string date formated with $format2
* @access restricted
*/
function _convertDate($date, $format1, $format2, $delimiterDateFormat, $delimiterDatabaseFormat){
if($date == null OR $date == ''){
return '';
}
//Split date and time
$date = explode($this->delimiterDateTimeFormat, $date);
$date_array = explode($delimiterDateFormat, $date[0]);
$format1_array = explode($delimiterDateFormat, $format1);
$format2_array = explode($delimiterDatabaseFormat, $format2);
$current_array = array_combine($format1_array, $date_array);
$new_array = array_combine($format2_array, $date_array);
foreach($new_array as $key=>$value){
$new_array[$key] = $current_array[$key];
}
if(isset($date[1])){
//merge date and time again
return implode($delimiterDatabaseFormat, $new_array).$this->delimiterDateTimeFormat.$date[1];
}else{
return implode($delimiterDatabaseFormat, $new_array);
}
}
/**
*Function which handle the convertion of the data arrays from database to user defined format and up side down
* @param array $data data array from and to database
* @param int $direction with 2 possible values '1' determine that data is going to database, '2' determine that data is pulled from database
* @return array converted array;
* @access restricted
*/
function _changeDate($data, $direction){
//just return false if the data var is false
if($data == false){
return false;
}
//Detecting the direction
switch($direction){
case 1:
$format1 = $this->dateFormat;
$format2 = $this->databaseFormat;
$delimiterDateFormat = $this->delimiterDateFormat;
$delimiterDatabaseFormat = $this->delimiterDatabaseFormat;
break;
case 2:
$format1 = $this->databaseFormat;
$format2 = $this->dateFormat;
$delimiterDateFormat = $this->delimiterDatabaseFormat;
$delimiterDatabaseFormat = $this->delimiterDateFormat;
break;
default:
return false;
}
//result model
foreach($data as $key=>$value){
if($direction == 2){
foreach($value as $key1=>$value1){
if($this->model->name == $key1){ //if it's current model;
$columns = $this->model->getColumnTypes();
} else {
//Fix for loading models on the fly
if(isset($this->model->{$key1})){
$columns = $this->model->{$key1}->getColumnTypes();
} else {
if($key1 != 'Parent'){
App::import('Model', $key1);
$model_on_the_fly = new $key1();
$columns = $model_on_the_fly->getColumnTypes();
}
}
}
foreach($value1 as $k=>$val){
if(!is_array($val)){
if(in_array($k, array_keys($columns))){
if(($columns[$k] == 'date' || $columns[$k] == 'datetime') && ($k != 'created' && $k != 'modified')){
if($val == '0000-00-00' || $val == '0000-00-00 00:00:00' || $val == ''){ //also clear the empty 0000-00-00 values
$data[$key][$key1][$k] = null;
} else {
$data[$key][$key1][$k] = $this->_convertDate($val, $format1, $format2, $delimiterDateFormat, $delimiterDatabaseFormat);
}
}
}
}
}
}
} else {
if($this->model->name == $key){ //if it's current model;
$columns = $this->model->getColumnTypes();
} else {
//Fix for loading models on the fly
if(isset($this->model->{$key})){
$columns = $this->model->{$key}->getColumnTypes();
} else {
if($key != 'Parent'){
App::import('Model', $key);
$model_on_the_fly = new $key();
$columns = $model_on_the_fly->getColumnTypes();
}
}
}
foreach($value as $k=>$val){
if(!is_array($val)){
if(in_array($k, array_keys($columns))){
if(($columns[$k] == 'date' || $columns[$k] == 'datetime') && ($k != 'created' && $k != 'modified')){
if($val == '0000-00-00' || $val == '0000-00-00 00:00:00' || $val == ''){ //also clear the empty 0000-00-00 values
$data[$key][$k] = null;
} else {
$data[$key][$k] = $this->_convertDate($val, $format1, $format2, $delimiterDateFormat, $delimiterDatabaseFormat);
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
return $data;
}
//Function before save.
function beforeSave($model) {
$model->data = $this->_changeDate($model->data, 1); //direction is from interface to database
return true;
}
function afterFind(&$model, $results){
$results = $this->_changeDate($results, 2); //direction is from database to interface
return $results;
}
}
?>
This code will work very good with the Advanced Date Picker Helper which I recently updated with CakePHP1.2 conventions /changing the way how to set initial variables/.
How to use it:
1. Save the class in /app/models/behaviours/date_formatter.php file.
2. If you have a requirement to set date format in a project, this probably mean that the requirement will apply to all fields and forms in the project, so it will be better if this behaviour apply for all models in the project. The easiest way is to add this to the AppModel class. Open your app_model.php and add the behaviour in it:
3. Set following Configuration parameters in configuration file /I prefer to use bootstrap.php/:
Configure::write('DateBehaviour.delimiterDateFormat', '-');
Basically the first one define the human date format and the second is the delimiter between day,month and year parts of the date string.
Bear in mind the if you want to use this behaviour in combination with DatePicker Helper you need to define also the Configure::write(‘DatePicker.format’, ‘%d-%m-%Y’)!
Here I will give an example of the configuration variables:
Configure::write('DateBehaviour.delimiterDateFormat', '-');
Configure::write('DatePicker.format', '%d-%m-%Y');
The following configuration will output format in the fields like: 29-12-2007 and when it’s going to be saved into DB the firmat will be 2007-12-29
Configure::write('DateBehaviour.delimiterDateFormat', '/');
Configure::write('DatePicker.format', '%m/%d/%Y');
Will output: 12/29/2007 , when it’s going to be saved into DB the format will be 2007-12-29 and so on.
Notice: There are some limitations about this behaviour here I will list them to prevent any confusions:
- The behaviour working only for CakePHP 1.2
- The behaviour support only numeric values of date format i.e. 01-12-2007, 2007-05-31 etc. I know it’s possible to handle full features of the date format, but I will appreciate if somebody give me some ideas how to make this quick and easy.
- This behaviour working only for first level of Model relations, so if you set $recursive of the model to be more than 1 the children records wont be affected. I decided to leave this as it is now, because there is very nice Time Helper which will handle time formatting for presentation purpose without any problems. The main goal of this behaviour is to handle “fetch from DB and load into inputs of the form” and “fetch from the form and format the inputs properly for the DB insertion”.
I would appreciate if there are any suggestions or comments for this class!
Happy coding! 😉
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-> Jose
Please check you create your Otherdemandado model file
where is assign getColumnTypes()?
g8 code but when I submit it below error is comming
Fatal error: Call to a member function getColumnTypes() on a non-object in /opt/lampp/htdocs/emradmin/app/Model/Behavior/DateFormatterBehavior.php on line 155