Magento Orders – How Magento Stores Date in Created_at Field

datemagento-1.9orders

I am working on cron extension in which i need to use difference of time. While working on this extension i observed one thing that magento has some difference in time while saving data in the table.

I need to deal with created_at field of sales_flat_order table. to get a time i use following two methods.

Mage::getModel('core/date')->date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
date("Y-m-d H:i:s", Mage::getModel('core/date')->timestamp(time()));

when i place a order both of this two method shows time as 2016-05-11 18:04:47 but after placing a order the value for created_at field of sales_flat_order was 2016-05-11 07:04:43.

Can any one please explain me how it is done? How magento insert value for this field?

Note: if i change H with h in above date function then it shows time as 2016-05-11 06:04:47 i.e. 12 Hour time but still their are healthy difference. which affects my functionality.

Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

The Magento uses time relative to the server time, transformed in UTC.

To set created_at value, try to use:

Mage::getSingleton('core/date')->gmtDate();

And to get local created_at value, try to use:

Mage::helper('core')->formatDate($order->getCreatedAt(), 'medium', true);

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Magento – Customer created_at Date off by months

The problem is in Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Attribute_Backend_Time_Created::beforeSave. This line ends up swapping the month and day:

$zendDate = Mage::app()->getLocale()->utcDate(null, $date, true, $this->_getFormat($date));

This happens to just about all entity types including products and customers, and happens during creation and normal save events, in both CE >= 1.8.x and EE >= 1.13.x.

Override this model in your own module, and replace the beforeSave method with this:

public function beforeSave($object)
{
    $attributeCode = $this->getAttribute()->getAttributeCode();
    $date = $object->getData($attributeCode);
    if (is_null($date)) {
        if ($object->isObjectNew()) {
            $object->setData($attributeCode, Varien_Date::now());
        }
    } else {
        // ADD THIS
        $date = strtotime($date);

        // convert to UTC
        $zendDate = Mage::app()->getLocale()->utcDate(null, $date, true, $this->_getFormat($date));
        $object->setData($attributeCode, $zendDate->getIso());
    }

    return $this;
}

This also needs to be corrected on the way out of the database. Replace afterLoad with this:

public function afterLoad($object)
{
    $attributeCode = $this->getAttribute()->getAttributeCode();
    $date = $object->getData($attributeCode);

    // ADD THIS
    if (!is_null($date)) {
        $date = strtotime($date);
    }

    $zendDate = Mage::app()->getLocale()->storeDate(null, $date, true, $this->_getFormat($date));
    $object->setData($attributeCode, $zendDate->getIso());

    parent::afterLoad($object);

    return $this;
}

Edit: Here is an example of how to override this class.

<global>
    <models>
        <eav>
            <rewrite>
                <entity_attribute_backend_time_created>Mycompany_Mymodule_Model_Eav_Entity_Attribute_Backend_Time_Created</entity_attribute_backend_time_created>
            </rewrite>
        </eav>
    </models>
</global>

Then create the file app\code\local\Mycompany\Mymodule\Model\Eav\Entity\Attribute\Backend\Time\Created.php

Set created_at When Programmatically Creating a Magento Order

created_at and updated_at for orders is set in Mage_Sales_Model_Resource_Abstract::_prepareDataForSave():

/**
 * Prepare data for save
 *
 * @param Mage_Core_Model_Abstract $object
 * @return array
 */
protected function _prepareDataForSave(Mage_Core_Model_Abstract $object)
{
    $currentTime = Varien_Date::now();
    if ((!$object->getId() || $object->isObjectNew()) && !$object->getCreatedAt()) {
        $object->setCreatedAt($currentTime);
    }
    $object->setUpdatedAt($currentTime);
    $data = parent::_prepareDataForSave($object);
    return $data;
}

You can see that updated_at is always set to the current time, whereas created_at is only set if the attribute is empty. The format that it should have comes from Varien_Date.

So you should be able to define your own creation timestamp:

$order->setCreatedAt(Varien_Date::formatDate($date, false));

where $date can be a Unix timestamp or an arbitrary date expression that can be parsed with PHPs strtotime

Best Answer

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Set created_at When Programmatically Creating a Magento Order

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