Mark Llobrera

Getting Timezone-adjusted Dates using Entity Metadata Wrapper

Published in #drupal, #technologys-betrayal, #web-development

Given a repeatable date field field_date_repeat that you know has only a single value, you might be tempted to drill down into dates like this:

$event_date = array();
// assume you’ve already created $item_wrapper
$date = $item_wrapper->field_date_repeat->value();
if (isset($date) && !empty($date)) {
  $event_date['date_start'] = format_date(strtotime($item_wrapper->field_date_repeat[0]['value']), 'custom', 'm-d-Y');
  $event_date['date_end'] = format_date(strtotime($item_wrapper->field_date_repeat[0]['value2']), 'custom', 'm-d-Y');
  $event_date['time_start'] = format_date(strtotime($item_wrapper->field_date_repeat[0]['value']), 'custom', 'g:ia');
  $event_date['time_end'] = format_date(strtotime($item_wrapper->field_date_repeat[0]['value2']), 'custom', 'g:ia');
}

Except that you now have a date that isn’t properly converted for your timezone, because you’ve sidestepped the EntityMetadataWrapper value() method which would convert the date for you. Also, it turns out that a date is treated as an EntityListWrapper, so you actually might just want to grab the first value, like so:

$event_date = array();
// assume you’ve already created $item_wrapper
$date = $item_wrapper->field_date_repeat->value();
if (isset($date) && !empty($date)) {
  $event_date['date_start'] = format_date($item_wrapper->field_date_repeat[0]->value->value(), 'custom', 'm-d-Y');
  $event_date['date_end'] = format_date($item_wrapper->field_date_repeat[0]->value2->value(), 'custom', 'm-d-Y');
  $event_date['time_start'] = format_date($item_wrapper->field_date_repeat[0]->value->value(), 'custom', 'g:ia');
  $event_date['time_end'] = format_date($item_wrapper->field_date_repeat[0]->value2->value(), 'custom', 'g:ia');
}

In this case you are using the value() method as the final step, which properly converts the date. As with most Entity Metadata Wrapper quirks, it pays to always use the value() method to get the properly converted value. I think of this almost like how using render() when theming uses the proper display formatter you’ve chosen.

This Drupal.org post: ([SOLVED] How to get a timestamp when using Date Popup from the Date module?) was very helpful, explaining that dates are stored in UTC format, so if you don’t retrieve that date via value(), you’re not localized to your timezone.