Format date before save or show

Hi Pip

I'm from germany and I had the same problem. My site supports two languages with different format of the date to input.

In my model (CI4) I made two changes:

First:

PHP Code:

protected $beforeInsert = ['getFormatedDate'];
protected $beforeUpdate = ['getFormatedDate']; 


This code will execute AFTER validation, but BEFORE inserting into database. 

And second (the callback code for the $beforeInsert/$beforeUpdate):

PHP Code:

protected function getFormatedDate(array $data)
    {
        //dd($data);
        $pattern = "/^[0-3][0-9][.][0-1][0-9][.][2-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] [0-2][0-9][:][0-5][0-9]$/";
        $format = "d.m.Y H:i";
        
        if(preg_match($pattern,$data['data']['starts_at']) == 1){
            $data['data']['starts_at'] = \DateTime::createFromFormat('d.m.Y H:i', $data['data']['starts_at']);
            $data['data']['starts_at'] = $data['data']['starts_at']->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
        } else {
            $data['data']['starts_at'] = \DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i', $data['data']['starts_at']);
            $data['data']['starts_at'] = $data['data']['starts_at']->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
        }

        if(preg_match($pattern,$data['data']['ends_at']) == 1){
            $data['data']['ends_at'] = \DateTime::createFromFormat('d.m.Y H:i', $data['data']['ends_at']);
            $data['data']['ends_at'] = $data['data']['ends_at']->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
        } else {
            $data['data']['ends_at'] = \DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i', $data['data']['ends_at']);
            $data['data']['ends_at'] = $data['data']['ends_at']->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
        }
        //dd($data);
        return $data;
    } 


The third thing I made is to check the input data via validation IN THE LANGUAGE THE USER SET.
For this I created own rules for each language:

PHP Code:

public function format_date(string $str = null): bool
    {
        switch(session()->get('locale')){
            case "en":
                $pattern = "/^[2-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][-][0-1][0-9][-][0-3][0-9] [0-2][0-9]:[0-5][0-9]$/"; // English date YYYY-MM-DD HH:ii
                $format = "Y-m-d H:i";
                break;
            case "de":
                $pattern = "/^[0-3][0-9][.][0-1][0-9][.][2-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] [0-2][0-9][:][0-5][0-9]$/"; // German date: DD.MM.YYYY HH:ii
                $format = "d.m.Y H:i";
                break;
        }
        if(preg_match($pattern,$str) != 1){
            return false;
        } 
        return true;
    } 


I have in my database for each language ONE DateTimeFormat : Y-m-d H:i:s

I hope, I could help yout to solve your problem ;)

Greetinxx

Kighlander