Programmatically set date fields in Drupal 7: Date, Date (ISO Format) and Date (Unix Timestamp)

Question

Using the Form API and hook_form_alter(), how can I manually set (force) the values for each of Drupal 7's date field types using a valid Unix Timestamp?

When the form is finally submit the field_date types are always empty arrays. Below is the broken code I'm working from.

hook_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) {

    // http://drupal.org/node/1455576 - Date
    $form['field_date'][LANGUAGE_NONE][0]['value'] = time();

    // http://drupal.org/node/1455576 - Date (ISO Format)
    $form['field_date_iso_format'][LANGUAGE_NONE][0]['value'] = time();

    // http://drupal.org/node/1455576 - Date (Unix Timestamp)
    $form['field_date_unix_timestamp'][LANGUAGE_NONE][0]['value'] =time();
}

I should mention the fields widget is set to text and it's format is 'Y-m-d H:i:s'

I have also tried date('Y-m-d H:i:s', time()) instead of time().

Example dpm() output.

I should also note that as a workaround I can set the field if I modify it in hook_node_presave(). To do this I set $node->field_date['und'][0]['value'] = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $my_unix_timestamp); I would still like to understand how to do this using hook_form_alter instead.

Answer 1

Here is a code that treat site timezone right for me:

 $node->field_date[LANGUAGE_NONE][0] = array(
    'value' => format_date(strtotime('now'), 'custom', 'Y-m-d H:i:s', 'UTC'),
    'timezone' => 'UTC',  
    'timezone_db' => 'UTC',
  );

Answer 2

Each date field-type is expecting a differently formatted timestamp (based on how it's stored in the DataBase):

// For datetime
$node->field_datetest[$node->language][0]['value'] = "2011-05-25 10:35:58";

// For date
$node->field_datetest[$node->language][0]['value'] = "2011-05-25T10:35:58";

// For datestamp
$node->field_datetest[$node->language][0]['value'] = strtotime("2011-05-25 10:35:58");

Note that you don't need to specify a complete date; for datetime and date you can just pad with zeros, e.g. "2011-05-00 00:00:00" (datetime), "2011-00-00T00:00:00" (date), etc. For datestamp you could just do e.g. strtotime("2011-05-25").

Important: Also note that while the exact value you specify will be stored in the database, the actual time displayed on the site might be different depending on timezone settings. When you create a new datetime/date/datestamp field, you get to choose between five different timezone handling methods. The default one is "site's time zone":

When entering data into the field, the data entered is assumed to be in the site's time zone. When the data is saved to the database, it is converted to UTC. However, if you set a date field programmatically like in the above example then no conversion takes place, so make sure you account for the field's timezone settings. Or in other words, if you use "site's time zone", make sure the time is in UTC.

This information was referenced from the section labeled Date field (datetime, date, datestamp) on fooninja's blog.

This is also a great general resource for programmatic node creation in Drupal 7.

Answer 3

This worked for me.

$node->field_date[LANGUAGE_NONE][0] = array(
      'value' => date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime('now')),
      'timezone' => 'UTC',
      'timezone_db' => 'UTC',
);

Answer 4

The time() value will not work at this level.

You have to use something like :

$mydate = date('Y-m-d', strtotime('31 May 2011'));

Answer 5

For Date stuff we could write a js for getting the current date...

jQuery(document).ready(function() {

    var fullDate = new Date()
    var HR_fullDate = fullDate.toDateString().toString().substring(4,15);
    jQuery('strong.date').contents().replaceWith(HR_fullDate);

});

Answer 6

If you're using field type Date (ISO format) then use:

$node->field_datetest[$node->language][0][value] = "2011-05-25T10:35";

Answer 7

Try this:

$now = date_now('UTC');
$now = date_format($now, "Y-m-d H:i:s");

Answer 8

For those dealing with $form_state and popup widget:

// The date format in this sample is dd/mm/yyyy
$form_state['values']['field_my_date_field']['und'][0]['value']['date'] = '14/05/2014';

Answer 9

To set a value to a date field follow below codes.

Using hook_form_alter

$form["field_date"]["und"][0]['#default_value']['value'] = $new_date;

Using hook_node_submit or hook_node_presave (Saving the value to the database)

 function MY_MODULE_node_presave($node) 
  {
      $node->field_date['und'][0]['value'] =  '2014-09-23 00:00:00';
  }

Or if you need to save value of one custom field(defined in hook_form_alter) to another, see below codes.

function MY_MODULE_node_submit($node, $form, &$form_state) {
  if($node->type == 'my_node_type') {
    $test_date =  $form['test_date ']['#value'];
    //Ensure that $test_date format is '2014-09-23 00:00:00'
    $node->field_date['und'][0]['value'] =  $test_date ;
   }
}

Answer 10

The accepted answer was giving me a PDO Exception. Only a simple time() call worked for a "datestamp" field!

        $entity->field_upload_time["und"][0]["value"] = time();

Answer 11

used time() and worked OK....

$fc_item_wrapper->field_data_pedido->set(time());