Yii date, hour, minute -> datetime string -> MySQL datetime - php

Question

I'm using Yii to construct a web application. One of my input forms has a CJuiDatePicker for the date. I have two drop down lists, one for the hours, and one for the minutes.
My problem is in the data model, where I'm trying to convert the date, hour, and minute from the form into a MySQL datetime string. I have to produce a datetime string that looks like this - 2011-02-27 20:11:56, so Yii can convert the string into a MySQL datetime and insert the value into the row.
In the model, I have a rule that looks like this:
array('event_datetime_from', 'createDatetime',
'date'=>'event_date_from', 'hour'=>'event_hour_from',
'minute'=>'event_minute_from'),
The createDateTime validator function looks like this:
public function createDatetime($attribute, $params) {
if (!$this->hasErrors()) {
$date = $this->$params['date'];
$hour = $this->$params['hour'];
$minute = $this->$params['minute'];
if (trim($date) === '') {
$this->$attribute = null;
} else {
$parse = CDateTimeParser::parse(
$date.' '.$hour.':'.$minute,
'MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm');
$this->$attribute = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $parse);
}
}
}
Now, I'm not a PHP developer. However, it appears to me that $params['date'] is returning the string value event_date_from, rather than the value of event_date_from.
My PHP question is, how do I get the value of event_date_from inside the createDateTime validator function?
My apologies if I overlooked the answer somewhere in the Yii documentation. I couldn't find many examples of validator functions. The Yii validator classes have a different parameter signature than validator functions.
Edited based on thaddeusmt's answer:
I tried extending CActiveRecord and coded an afterValidate method, but I couldn't find a place to define my working date, hour, and minute variables. I defined them in the extended method, and the afterValidate method couldn't see them. I got a PHP undefined variable error in the afterValidate method.
In the controller, I coded the following function:
protected function createDateTime($dateString, $hour, $minute) {
if (trim($dateString) == '') {
return null;
} else {
$timeString = $dateString.' '.$hour.':'.$minute;
return date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime($timeString));
}
}
It should be a cinch to call a function in PHP, right?
I tried both of these calls in the actionCreate() function:
$model->event_datetime_from =
createDateTime($_POST['event_date_from'],
$_POST['event_hour_from'],
$_POST['event_minute_from']
);
and:
$model->event_datetime_from =
createDateTime($model->event_date_from,
$model->event_hour_from,
$model->event_minute_from
);
My controller code dies with either of these calls, and I get a blank (no HTML) response page.
I thought what I wanted to do was pretty simple. I want to take a date, hour, and minute string, and convert the concatenation to a datetime string. What am I missing?

Answer 1

What I do is, in the POST action in the Controller (where the POST vars are assigned), I convert the posted date and time values into a MySQL datetime with the date() and mktime() function, then validate/save. So, here is an example of the post action:
public function actionUpdate() {
$model=$this->loadModel();
if(isset($_POST['Model'])) {
$model->attributes = $_POST['Model']; // assign the rest of the POST vars here
$model->event_datetime_from = date(
'Y-m-d H:i:s', // convert the timestamp to the mySQL format
mktime( // create the timestamp from the posted date and time vars
$_POST['my-hour-var'], // set the hour
$_POST['my-minute-var'], // set the min
$_POST['my-second-var'], // set the sec
date("m"), // set the month
date("d"), // set the day
date("Y") // set the year
)
); // create a MySQL Y-m-d H:i:s format date from the POST vars
$model->save(); // this run the validation rules, naturally
}
}
(This assumes a model called "Model", POSTed hour, minute and second variables called my-hour-var, my-minute-var and my-second-var respectively, and that you are setting the DATE part to today.)
And here is an example of validation rule in the Model model using the CTypeValidator:
public function rules() {
return array(
array('event_datetime_from', 'type', 'type'=>'datetime', 'datetimeFormat'=>'yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss', 'message' => '{attribute} is not a date and time!'),
}
I hope this helps!

Answer 2

I'd highly recommend checking out this extension:
http://www.yiiframework.com/extension/i18n-datetime-behavior/
It does some of this behavior automatically. You may need to update it a bit depending on how you expect your incoming dates to look. One way is to always run the property through strtotime() (built in php date parsing function) instead of the specific date parser in the extension.

Answer 3

I finally got my date, hour, and minute strings to convert to a datetime string.
Here's the code that I put in the actionCreate method and the actionUpdate method of the CalendarEventController:
$model->attributes=$_POST['CalendarEvent'];
// new code
$timeString = $_POST['CalendarEvent']['event_date_from'].' '.
$_POST['CalendarEvent']['event_hour_from'].':'.
$_POST['CalendarEvent']['event_minute_from'];
$model->event_datetime_from =
date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime($timeString));
if (trim($_POST['CalendarEvent']['event_date_to']) === '') {
$model->event_datetime_to = null;
} else {
$timeString = $_POST['CalendarEvent']['event_date_to'].' '.
$_POST['CalendarEvent']['event_hour_to'].':'.
$_POST['CalendarEvent']['event_minute_to'];
$model->event_datetime_to =
date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime($timeString));
}
I had two datetime fields in this model, with the second field optional. This code didn't work when I put it in a function. It only worked when I put the code inline in the two action methods.
I guess I don't understand PHP function calls. But, in case anyone else comes across this question, here's the answer that worked.