Set a datetime field configured as date-only

Question

I'm developing a module where I have to set a user profile date_field. I tried several methods to implement this but not one worked for me.

This is the code I am using.

private function updateUser($user_import,$uid = null) {
  if (!$uid) {
    return false;
  }

  $roles = $this->matchRoles($user_import->roles);
  $birthday = $this->birthdayDate($user_import->profile_geburtsdatum);
  $language = \Drupal::languageManager()->getCurrentLanguage()->getId();

  $user = \Drupal\user\Entity\User::load($uid);
  // $user->setPassword($this->randomPassword());
  $user->setEmail($user_import->mail);
  $user->setUsername($user_import->name);
  $user->enforceIsNew(false);

  // Optional settings
  $user->set("init", $user_import->init);
  $user->set("langcode", $language);
  $user->set("preferred_langcode", $language);
  $user->set("preferred_admin_langcode", $language);

  foreach ($roles as $role) {
    $user->addRole($role);
  }

  $user->set("field_profile_geburtsdatum", array('#default_value' => $birthday));
  $user->activate();
  $user->save();

  drupal_set_message("UPDATE: User " . $user_import->name . ' ( '. $user_import->mail . ')');
}

private function birthdayDate($import_date) {
  $date = null;
  if (!empty($import_date)) {
    $date = strtotime($import_date->day.'.'.$import_date->month.'.'.$import_date->year);
    $date = date('Y-m-d 00:00:00',$date);
    $date = new \Drupal\Core\Datetime\DrupalDateTime($date, 'Europe/Berlin');

    /* $date = array(
         'year' => date('Y',$date),
         'month' => date('m',$date),
         'day' => date('d',$date),
       );
     */
  }

  return $date;
}

Answer 1

Assuming field_profile_geburtsdatum is configured as a singular date-only datetime field, the following are all equivalent in the Field API (in order of my preferred usage):

$user->field_profile_geburtsdatum = '1999-12-31';
$user->field_profile_geburtsdatum->value = '1999-12-31';
$user->field_profile_geburtsdatum->set(0, '1999-12-31');
$user->set('field_profile_geburtsdatum', ['1999-12-31']);

The value you set should be a string in the DATETIME_DATE_STORAGE_FORMAT, which is 'Y-m-d', and not a DrupalDateTime object. That is used internally by the field type.

Answer 2

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:

$timezone = new \DateTimeZone('Europe/Berlin');

// geburtsdatum = 'date of birth' :-)
$birthday_import_object = $user_import->profile_geburtsdatum;

$day = $birthday_import_object->day;
$month = $birthday_import_object->month;
$year = $birthday_import_object->year;

$birthday = new \DateTime($day.' '.$month.' '.$year, $timezone);

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

$user->set(
  'field_profile_geburtsdatum',
  $birthday
    ->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone(DateTimeItemInterface::STORAGE_TIMEZONE))
    ->format(DateTimeItemInterface::DATETIME_STORAGE_FORMAT)
);

Answer 3

$user->set('field_profile_geburtsdatum', [['value' => $birthday]]);

There are two issues with the call to set in the question.

1. A field requires to set an indexed array of values. This will call FieldItemBase::setValue().
2. Each array within the values array should be keyed by the properties of that field. In this case value, not #default_value.

It is understandably confusing because as of this time there is no clear documentation around setting field items in either the Entity API section of Develop for Drupal or on api.drupal.org.