Laravel - formatting all dates simultaneously - laravel

Question

I'm currently working on a POC to showcase that it's going to be fairly painless to create an API with Laravel, the catch being that the database is already set in stone.
One problem I've run into is that they've used custom created at and updated at column names, e.g. for a car table, the created_at column would be car_time and the updated date would be cardata_time, and these are all saved as unix timestamps.
I know you can set the CREATED_AT and UPDATED_AT columns for each model. I want to go another step and return all dates in ISO 8601 format.
I've inserted a class between my models and Model called MasterModel and I want to do something like
protected function getCreatedAtAttribute($value)
{
$format = "Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z";
$datetime = new DateTime($value);
return $datetime->format($format);
}
to make all created at dates be in that format. The problem is that I the custom created at and updated columns mean that this never gets called.
Is there a way for me to identify the created at and updated at columns in such a way that I can use a single method to updated all created at dates at the same time?
UPDATE: I realize my original question was not clear enough - I need to identify all fields that are dates, not just created_at and updated_at, and have them formatted a certain way. They will always be unix timestamps. Not sure how I'd go about this.

Answer 1

Here an answer that will expand on #caddy dz answer who happen to be sitting with me.
 All the things that need to be known
Deactivation of auto management of timestamps
public $timestamps = false; // <-- deactivate the automatic handling
Change table attributes names
const CREATED_AT = 'creation_date'; // <--- change the names
const UPDATED_AT = 'last_update';
source doc:
https://laravel.com/docs/5.8/eloquent#eloquent-model-conventions
By default, Eloquent expects created_at and updated_at columns to
exist on your tables. If you do not wish to have these columns
automatically managed by Eloquent, set the $timestamps property on
your model to false:
 Creating the accessors
class User extends Model
{
/**
* Get the user's first name.
*
* #param string $value
* #return string
*/
public function getFirstNameAttribute($value)
{
// do whatever you want here (change and mutate the value)
return ucfirst($value);
}
}
First thing to know, is that the accessors are a global concept for
eloquent and can be writing for all attributes and not just
getCreatedAtAttribute or getUpdatedAtAttribute.
Second thing to know is that whatever the name of the column, that is
in camle case (firstName) or with _ (first_name) eloquent know to
match to it. The format of the accessor should be
get[NameOfATtribute]Attribute in pascal case (camle case but first
letter too in uppercase).
Three the method argument hold the value of the column in
question. Bellow a snippet that show how it's used
$user = App\User::find(1);
$firstName = $user->first_name; //|=> first_name => getFirstNameAttribute(columnVal)
The resolution is clear.
first_name (column name) => getFirstNameAttribute(columnValue)
All the snippets are from the doc: https://laravel.com/docs/5.8/eloquent-mutators#accessors-and-mutators
 Let's apply all of that
First we need to not use $table->timestamps() in the migration so we make the changment to the bellow.
Schema::create('cars', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->bigIncrements('id');
$table->timestamp('cardata_time', 0)->nullable();
$table->timestamp('car_time', 0)->nullable();
});
Then we apply the modification on our model:
- we deactivate the auto handling of timestamps.
- Override the timestamps columns names.
- And create the accessors.
Here depend on what we want. If we want to only do the above here a snippet that show that:
// deactivate auto timestamps management
public $timestamps = false;
// change the columns names
const CREATED_AT = 'car_time';
const UPDATED_AT = 'cardata_time';
// creating the accessors (respect the naming)
protected function getCarTimeAttribute($value) //car_time => CarTime
{
// <-- do whatever you want here (example bellow)
$format = "Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z";
$datetime = new DateTime($value);
return $datetime->format($format);
}
protected function getCardataTimeAttribute($value) //cardata_time => CardataTime
{
// <-- do whatever you want here
$format = "Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z";
$datetime = new DateTime($value);
return $datetime->format($format);
}
 Doing it with renaming the attributes completely
If what you want is to use another accessing name. Then what my friend #caddy dz did is the way to go. Which happen to be sitting with me. And dared me to expand upon the answer. (hhhh)
You will need to know
$appends and $hidden
Part of the serialization API.
https://laravel.com/docs/master/eloquent-serialization#appending-values-to-json
https://laravel.com/docs/master/eloquent-serialization#hiding-attributes-from-json
$appends allow us to add attributes to the model. That don't exists on the table. We need also to create an accessors for them.
class User extends Model
{
/**
* The accessors to append to the model's array form.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $appends = ['is_admin'];
// ........
/**
* Get the administrator flag for the user.
*
* #return bool
*/
public function getIsAdminAttribute()
{
return $this->attributes['admin'] == 'yes';
}
}
and
$hidden allow us to remove and limit the attribute from the models. Like with the password field.
Doc examples:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class User extends Model
{
/**
* The attributes that should be hidden for arrays.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $hidden = ['password'];
}
And from that what we need to do is to hide the attributes holding the time, that want to be changed to somehting else.
// remove the old attributes names
protected $hidden = ['car_time', 'cardata_time']; // renaming those
// append the new one \/ \/ <- to those
protected $appends = ['car_crated_at', 'cardata_created_at']; // names just for illustration
protected function getCarCreatedAtAttribute($value) // car_created_at => CarCreatedAt
{
$format = "Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z";
$datetime = new DateTime($value);
return $datetime->format($format);
}
protected function getCardataCreatedAtAttribute($value) // cardata_created_at => CardataCreatedAt
{
$format = "Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z";
$datetime = new DateTime($value);
return $datetime->format($format);
}
 Applying it for different models
The basic idea is to create a base model then extend it when you create your model.
Formatting all time attributes of the model without exception
If what you want is to apply the formatting for all the time attributes within the model.
Then override serializeDate() method. In practice write a trait, and then you can apply it. Otherwise a base model.
The answer bellow cover it well:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/41569026/7668448
And historically This thread is interesting :
https://github.com/laravel/framework/issues/21703
Serializing in Carbon level
In the documentation laravel 5.7 and up (what i checked [doc only]) :
https://laravel.com/docs/master/eloquent-serialization#date-serialization
We can change the formatting at the level of carbon serialization. But it happen that there was a bug in the past. Normally fixed but i didn't try it. Bug was in 5.7 and fixed in 5.7 if i'm not wrong. The git link above discuss it.
Snippet:
class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
/**
* Perform post-registration booting of services.
*
* #return void
*/
public function boot()
{
Carbon::serializeUsing(function ($carbon) {
return $carbon->format('U');
});
}
___THE_END ^ ^

Answer 2

Not sure what you're asking but if you have cardata_time and car_time in your table defined like this
Schema::create('cars', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->bigIncrements('id');
$table->timestamp('cardata_time', 0)->nullable();
$table->timestamp('car_time', 0)->nullable();
});
And a MasterModel like so
/**
* Indicates if the model should be timestamped.
*
* #var bool
*/
public $timestamps = false;
const CREATED_AT = 'created_at';
const UPDATED_AT = 'updated_at';
/**
* The accessors to append to the model's array form.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $appends = ['created_at', 'updated_at'];
/**
* The attributes that should be hidden for arrays.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $hidden = ['car_time', 'cardata_time'];
protected function getCreatedAtAttribute($value)
{
$format = "Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z";
$datetime = new DateTime($value);
return $datetime->format($format);
}
protected function getUpdatedAtAttribute($value)
{
$format = "Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z";
$datetime = new DateTime($value);
return $datetime->format($format);
}
Results:
{
"id": 1,
"created_at": "2019-09-02T20:31:38Z",
"updated_at": "2019-09-02T20:31:38Z"
}

Answer 3

As in the documentation. The first approach. This requires the dates, to be defined in the $dates property. This will only be triggered if the Model is serialized.
public class YourModel extends Model
{
protected $dateFormat = "Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z";
}
You can also define it in a provider in the boot method. Which will trigger when a Carbon date is serialized.
public function boot()
{
Carbon::serializeUsing(function ($carbon) {
return $carbon->format("Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z");
});
}