2.2RC1 BC Break: DateTimeFormatter sets blank data to today's date

[akrabat]

Updating my project to 2.2 RC1, I find that any Zend\Form\Element\Date element can now no longer be empty as today's date is returned from the automatically added DateTimeFormatter filter...

[weierophinney]

Are you working on a fix yet? (Don't want to duplicate effort!)

[akrabat]

Not sure of how complex a fix is required. The most simplistic fix is:

diff --git a/library/Zend/Filter/DateTimeFormatter.php b/library/Zend/Filter/DateTimeFormatter.php
index f0dee58..19a9e6c 100644
--- a/library/Zend/Filter/DateTimeFormatter.php
+++ b/library/Zend/Filter/DateTimeFormatter.php
@@ -71,7 +71,9 @@ class DateTimeFormatter extends AbstractFilter
      */
     protected function normalizeDateTime($value)
     {
-        if (is_int($value)) {
+        if (empty($value)) {
+            return '';
+        } elseif (is_int($value)) {
             $dateTime = new DateTime('@' . $value);
         } elseif (!$value instanceof DateTime) {
             $dateTime = new DateTime($value);

But, I'm unsure whether we should introduce an option for this.

[weierophinney]

I'd argue if it was the original behavior, we should probably add a test and make the change. Check through the changelog to see what may have prompted the change in behavior, though; if it was on purpose, we should add an option.

[akrabat]

PR that introduced DateTimeFormatter is #3632 . Any thoughts on this @davidwindell ?

[davidwindell]

@akrabat I clearly missed handling for empty values and agree we need to do so, I would be against returning '', instead simply return $value if it isempty. In an API scenario one may be handling null values, not just empty strings.

     protected function normalizeDateTime($value)
     {
-        if (is_int($value)) {
+        if (empty($value)) {
+            return $value;
+        } elseif (is_int($value)) {
             $dateTime = new DateTime('@' . $value);
         } elseif (!$value instanceof DateTime) {
             $dateTime = new DateTime($value);

[akrabat]

Thanks @davidwindell - PR created.

[DASPRiD]

Wait wait, not empty(), do a === '' comparision!

[davidwindell]

Why? I would never want an empty value normalised to today's date.

[gws]

0 is a perfectly valid UNIX timestamp.

[davidwindell]

Ooh yeah, @akrabat can you do a check for "" and null instead please?

[akrabat]

Would people prefer if ($value === '' || $value === null) { ?

[davidwindell]

: thumbsup

[gws]

👍