Automatic Time Stamps

When working with database tables, it is very common to have a column that holds the time that the record was added or last modified. If you have an e-commerce website with an orders table, you want to store the date and time the order was made; if you run a blog, you want to know when someone left a comment; and so on.
As with anything that is a common task performed by many developers, it makes a good candidate for abstracting to the framework level. So that's what we did.
Columns Used for Timestamps
If you have either of the following columns in your database table, CFWheels will see them and treat them a little differently than others.
createdat
CFWheels will use a createdat column automatically to store the current date and time when an INSERToperation is made (which could happen through a save() or create() operation, for example).
updatedat
If CFWheels sees an updatedat column, it will use it to store the current date and time automatically when an UPDATE operation is made (which could happen through a save() or update() operation, for example).
Data Type of Columns
If you add any of these columns to your table, make sure they can accept date/time values (like datetime or timestamp, for example) and that they can be set to null.
Time Zones
Time stamping is done in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) by default but if you want to use your local time instead all you have to do is change the global setting for it like this:
set(timeStampMode="local");

Database Interaction Through Models - Previous

Soft Delete

Next - Database Interaction Through Models

Database Migrations

Last modified 4mo ago

Export as PDF

Copy link

Edit on GitHub

Outline

Columns Used for Timestamps

Data Type of Columns

Time Zones