Question

I’ve set up a database table with a DATETIME field named “release_date”, and the model/resource model seem to work fine. However, I want to retrieve and set “release_date” as a Zend_Date object. And I also want to make sure its always stored and retrieved as UTC.

Do you have any suggestions on how I could do this, or perhaps a better solution all together?

Answer 1

You can handle it in your resource model, something like:

protected function _beforeSave(Mage_Core_Model_Abstract $object)
{
    ...
    $date = $object->getReleaseDate();
    // convert from your server/client timezone to UTC if needed
    $object->setReleaseDate($this->formatDate($date));
    ...
}

protected function _afterLoad(Mage_Core_Model_Abstract $object)
{
    ...
    $date = new Zend_Date($object->getReleaseDate());
    // convert to your server/client timezone from UTC if needed
    $object->setReleaseDate($date);
    ...
}