timestamp changing without modifyng the field in the db - php

Question

I'm having a problem with my 'end_date' column on my database. First off, I'm making a To-do application. So I have a table called 'Tasks' with following Columns:
$table->increments('id');
$table->integer('user_id');
$table->string('title');
$table->mediumText('description');
$table->timestamp('end_date');
$table->integer('completed');
$table->timestamps();
When a user creates a task they can give an end_date to this task. I'm in the UTC+2 timezone so for the user I'm displaying all times in UTC+2 but i'm storing them in UTC on my database.
Here are the input fields with the actual Store function:
{{Form::date('end_date', \Carbon\Carbon::now()->timezone('Europe/Brussels'),['class' => 'form-control mb-2 mr-sm-2 mb-sm-0'])}}
{{Form::time('time', \Carbon\Carbon::now()->timezone('Europe/Brussels')->format('H:i'),['class' => 'form-control'])}}
Because I'm using 2 input fields I have to merge them together in the store function:
public function store(Request $request)
{
$requestData = $request->all();
$task = new Task($requestData);
$inputDateAndTime = $requestData['end_date'].' '.$requestData['time'].':00';
$task['end_date'] = Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i:s', $inputDateAndTime, 'Europe/Brussels')->timezone('UTC');
$task['user_id'] = auth()->id();
$task['completed'] = 0;
$task->save();
return redirect('/tasks')->with('success', 'Task created');
}
In this function I specify that the user has given a Time in UTC+2 timezone and I want this to be converted in UTC. (This works as expected)
The problem: So if the user wishes to complete this task, they can do a PUT request to update the 'completed' column, But when this request is being handled my end_date column is being changed on the same time without touching the column at all.
My update function:
public function update(Request $request, Task $task)
{
$task -> completed = 1;
$task->save();
return redirect('/tasks')->with('success', 'Task completed');
}
Example of the problem:
Let us say that user 1 creates a task with following end date = 08/18/2018 20:14
Note that this time is for UTC+2, so I'm saying convert this to UTC.
After the store function, I check the database, with following end_date = 2018-08-18 18:14:00
Which is correct, now lets see what my end_date is when I run the update function:
public function update(Request $request, Task $task)
{
dd($task->end_date);
// the result:
Carbon #1534616040 {#552 ▼ date: 2018-08-18 18:14:00.0 utc(+00:00)
}
}
So still the same value, but If I run the update function as normal and check the database this is my value:
2018-08-18 17:24:27, what I noticed is that my updated_at field has the same last 2 digits, so it is somehow taking the current time I would assume. My updated_at field: 2018-08-18 15:24:27
Any idea what I'm doing wrong here?

Answer 1

Timestamp is controlled by the db do that when a record is updated, it will reflect that. To have a custom field that only changes when you want it to, use datetime.