Why is my Datetime field not saved?

Question

I use the following code to create a node.

    $datetime = "2016-08-01 12:30:00";
    $values = array(
      'title' => $data['title'],
      'body' => $data['body'],
      'field_client' => $uid,
      'field_appointment_date_time' => $datetime,
      'type' => 'appointment'
   );

  $appointment = Node::create($values);
  $appointment->save();

The problem is that field_appointment_date_time (a Datetime field) is not been saved.

Why does this happen?

Answer 1

The above code is correct, date time was saved into DB. the problem is frontend.

frontend expected this format:

"2016-08-01T12:30:00", need a "T" as separator.

here is how to put that T as separator,

\DateTime::format("Y-m-d\Th:i:s"), need a escape character in-front of T.

2016-01-22 update:

By the way, I have found out in Drupal 8 , correct way to store datetime is follow:

1> first , find out current user timezone, \Drupal::currentUser()->getTimezone()

2> $given = new \Drupal\Core\Datetime\DrupalDateTime("2016-08-01T12:30:00",$user->getTimezone());

3> $given->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone("UTC"));

4> then get back formated datetime string $given->format("Y-m-d\Th:i:s");

Answer 2

I had the same problem, please try this

$dateTime = \DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d','2000-01-30');
$newDateString = $dateTime->format('Y-m-d\TH:i:s');
$node = \Drupal\node\Entity\Node::create(array(
          'type' => 'article',
          'title' => 'The title',
          'langcode' => 'en',
          'uid' => 1,
          'status' => 1,
          'body' => array('The body text'),
          //'field_date' => array("2000-01-30"),
          'field_date' => $newDateString,
    ));
$node->save();

I've picked it from here:https://www.drupal8.ovh/en/tutoriels/64/create-a-node-date-field

I hope it helps you.

Answer 3

Since Drupal 8.5.x this works a little differently.

Firstly it's good practice to set the timezone explicitly so you know what is going on:

• See PHP's list of supported timezones
• Get the default time zone using date_default_timezone_get(). Please note drupal_get_user_timezone() is deprecated since Drupal 8.8.0 and removed from Drupal 9.0.0.
• Use Drupal's storage timezone DateTimeItemInterface::STORAGE_TIMEZONE.

Set the timezone:

$timezone = new \DateTimeZone('UTC');
// Or
$timezone = new \DateTimeZone(date_default_timezone_get());
// Or 
$timezone = new \DateTimeZone(DateTimeItemInterface::STORAGE_TIMEZONE);

Then create the date object using the PHP DateTime class:

$date_time = new \DateTime('now', $timezone);
$drupal_date_time = DrupalDateTime::createFromDateTime($date_time);

Or the DrupalDateTime class:

$drupal_date_time = new DrupalDateTime('yesterday', $timezone);

I like to use DateTime (or DateTimeImmutable) and then pass into the DrupalDateTime wrapper. That way native methods are highlighted in the IDE and also date comparisons (e.g. $now > $somedatetime work reliably.

Prior to saving the date/time you must set the timezone to DateTimeItemInterface::STORAGE_TIMEZONE:

$drupal_date_time->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone(DateTimeItemInterface::STORAGE_TIMEZONE))

You can then format the date for storage using the the DateTimeItemInterface::DATETIME_STORAGE_FORMAT constant:

$drupal_date_time->format(DateTimeItemInterface::DATETIME_STORAGE_FORMAT)

Here is an example based on above use case:

$datetime_string = "2016-08-01 12:30:00";

// Get the default timezone
$timezone = new \DateTimeZone(date_default_timezone_get());
// Or set the timezone explicitly to match the $datetime_string
$timezone = new \DateTimeZone('Europe/London');

// Create the DateTime object
$datetime = new \DateTime($datetime_string, $timezone);

// Optionally convert to DrupalDateTime if you need the custom methods, etc
$datetime = DrupalDateTime::createFromDateTime($datetime);

// Create and save the node
$node = Node::create([
  'type' => 'appointment'
  'title' => $data['title'],
  'body' => $data['body'],
  'field_client' => $uid,
  'field_appointment_date_time' => $datetime
    ->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone(DateTimeItemInterface::STORAGE_TIMEZONE))
    ->format(DateTimeItemInterface::DATETIME_STORAGE_FORMAT),

]);

$node->save();