Method UTCDateTime::toDateTime doesn't respect current timezone

[jakubboucek]

Object DateTime has $timezone as one of internal variable used for correct convert between date formats. If is not defined in call new DateTime(), is set to current timezone based on date_default_timezone_set() function or php.ini configuration.

Method UTCDateTime::toDateTime is ignoring this convention and always create DateTime object with timezone +0000 and is necessarily to keep in mind and rewrite timezone on every use this method:

$UTCDateTime->toDateTime()->setTimeZone( new \DateTimeZone( date_default_timezone_get() ) );

[derickr]

Hi!

In theory, this is by design. The database doesn't know about timezones (yet), and you could argue that inventing a timezone to go with something that is stored in the database is a bad idea.

But I see your use case.

We can't change how toDateTime behaves, as that would mean breaking backwards compatibility. But we could add a toLocalDateTime() method or something similar to add the default configured timezone to the \DateTime object that it returns. Would that work?

cheers,
Derick

[jakubboucek]

I understand you can't change currently defined interface, the toLocalDateTime() is good compromise. Don't forget add this behaviour to documentation - it save lot of hours for all developer using driver to debug.

I still think, this is not by design. As name of class say, timestamp in DB is defined in UTC. DateTime is designed for use with timezones and by design respect current timezone setted for process when is not specified another tz in method argument.

[jakubboucek]

One more thing: Why is unable serialize UTCDateTime?

My app loading document from Mongo and save it to User session as info about loggedIn user. Previous generation of MongoDate allow to serialize they. But UTCDateTime doesn't.

I must sanitize all data from DB like here: https://github.com/plzenskybarcamp/plzenskybarcamp-web/blob/bc62ebbc7d41485ee46595b4785ffcb3c5ddd64b/app/model/MongoDbSanitizer.php

Is any reason for that?

[derickr]

We're aware of the serialisation issues. This is tracked in https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/PHPC-460 and https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/HHVM-130, and will make it into the 1.2 version of the driver.

[jmikola]

Opened PHPC-760 to track the toLocalDateTime() feature request. Please watch that issue for any updates.

As for UTCDateTime serialization, that is now supported in the 1.2.0alpha1 release.