Set a specific changed date for a node

Question

I am creating nodes programatically based on the feed from an external api. I have managed to create all nodes, assign field values and also set the created date. Now my problem is that I also need to set the changed date of each node to match the value returned from the feed. I have tried to set this value before saving the node without any success:

// $data contains the release information used to create and populate the node
$node = new stdClass();
$node->title = $data->Release->Title;
$node->type = 'release';
node_object_prepare($node);
$node->status = NODE_PUBLISHED;
$node->uid = 1;
$node->language = LANGUAGE_NONE;

// handle any field data - not really important
handleFields($node, $data);

// submit the node
$node = node_submit($node);

$node->created = strtotime($data->Release->PublishDate);
// here I'm trying to set the changed value for the node
$node->changed = strtotime($data->Release->LastChangeDate);

// finally save the node
node_save($node);

Would be nice if anyone have a solution to this problem. Perhaps I can make a raw query against the database in order to update the changed date of the node? The reason I need to set this value is because later on it will be used to compare against the modification date of a release in the feed so I can decide if the node needs to be updated or not. I know I could use a custom field for this purpose, storing the releases modification time and then compare against this value instead of the changed column in the node table.

Answer 1

The code you are using doesn't work as expected because you first set $node->changed and then call node_save(), which sets $node->changed to REQUEST_TIME using the following code.

// Set the timestamp fields.
if (empty($node->created)) {
  $node->created = REQUEST_TIME;
}
// The changed timestamp is always updated for bookkeeping purposes,
// for example: revisions, searching, etc.
$node->changed = REQUEST_TIME;

$node->timestamp = REQUEST_TIME;
$update_node = TRUE;

// Let modules modify the node before it is saved to the database.
module_invoke_all('node_presave', $node);
module_invoke_all('entity_presave', $node, 'node');

If you want to set $node->changed, you would need to implement hook_node_presave(), which is invoked right after node_save(). For example, with the code you show, I would add the following line.

$node->release_change_date = strtotime($data->Release->LastChangeDate);

In hook_node_presave(), you would then use the following code.

$node->changed = $node->release_change_date

Answer 2

For drupal 7:

$update_node = node_load($nid_to_change);
$update_node->changed = $timestamp_in_unix_form;
drupal_write_record('node', $update_node, 'nid');

This is very dumb routine; it's bypassing a lot of error checking in node_save(). It expects a complete, intact node. so it's up to you to make sure the node integrity is good. Otherwise you risk corrupting your database.