Question

Any idea why I cannot automatically update creation_time field in my table:

id | name | creation_time

creation_time–>
Type: Timestamp,
Default Value: CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

When I try to save data in cakephp by using a statement like this:

$this->Model->create();
$this->Model->save(array('name'=>'...'));

I got new data inserting to the table but without the creation time. It is abnormal that when i run an insert into Mysql statement then the field is automatically update as current timestamp.

I know that I could use created field as in Cakephp’s documentation but for my case, i don’t want to change the existing field name because it is a table used by other members working in the same project.

Please advise me.

Answer 1

When you call $this->Model->create(), Cake populates the data contained in $this->Model with default values. If you debug $this->Model->data

debug($this->Model->data);

You will that the creation_time is already set, but with a string:

array(
    'Model' => array(
         ...,
         'creation_time' => 'CURRENT_TIMESTAMP'
)

)

So when Cake generates the INSERT query, this one contain the creation_time field, with CURRENT_TIMESTAMP as a string:

INSERT INTO `models` (..., `creation_time`, ...) VALUES (..., 'CURRENT_TIMESTAMP', ...)

If you want to keep your creation_time field in the datatable, to generate a working query you could delete the default value before saving the data:

$this->Model->create();
unset($this->Model->data['Model']['creation_time']);
$this->Model->save(...);