Datetime fields returning type is not consistant.

[zombeer]

Describe the bug
created_at and updated_at fields are having type other than schema declared Datetime fields.

In [10]: gs.serialize()
Out[10]: 
{'uuid': 'dd9b77c8-4089-40f2-9be0-3172bc4a00b2',
   ...
 'token_expires_at': '2022-12-08T13:20:06+01:00',
 'history_id': 31960,
 'subscribed': 1,
 'subscription_expires_at': '2022-12-15T11:20:07+01:00',
 'created_at': '2022-12-08T11:55:21+01:00',
 'updated_at': '2022-12-08T12:20:07+01:00',
 'deleted_at': None}

In [11]: type(gs.created_at)
Out[11]: pendulum.datetime.DateTime

In [12]: type(gs.token_expires_at)
Out[12]: datetime.datetime

To Reproduce
Create a datetime field in mysql db.

Expected behavior
I was hoping to get the same type

Screenshots or code snippets

CREATE TABLE "sessions" (
  "uuid" char(36) NOT NULL,
....
  "token_expires_at" datetime NOT NULL,
....
  "subscription_expires_at" datetime DEFAULT NULL,
  "created_at" datetime DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  "updated_at" datetime DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  "deleted_at" datetime DEFAULT NULL,
....
);

Desktop (please complete the following information):
Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS

What database are you using?
MySQL(not sure about version),
masonite-orm==2.18.6

[zombeer]

well.. I've found __dates__ magic field, but I'm really wonder why do I have to explicitly mention that I wan't to cast everything in one type... ? It's kinda really strange solution.

[zombeer]

coming back to this issue... still having problems with it...

In [27]: s = SomeModel.first()

In [28]: s.token_expires_at
Out[28]: DateTime(2022, 12, 19, 19, 35, 23, tzinfo=Timezone('Europe/Berlin'))

In [29]: type(s.token_expires_at)
Out[29]: pendulum.datetime.DateTime

In [30]: new_session = SomeModel()

In [31]: new_session.token_expires_at = pendulum.now()

In [32]: new_session.token_expires_at
Out[32]: '2022-12-20 11:06:29'

In [33]: type(new_session.token_expires_at)
Out[33]: str

[zombeer]

Why does datetime field can be returned as three different types? - I've seen str, datetime, and pendulum.datetime.DateTime already... should I expect to see unix epoch at some point?

[zombeer]

moreover it's being serialized into different formats:

In [31]: new_session.token_expires_at = pendulum.now()

In [32]: new_session.token_expires_at
Out[32]: '2022-12-20 11:06:29'

while existing models serialized with .serialize() gets format:

'token_expires_at': '2022-12-08T13:20:06+01:00',

this is extremely frustrating

[josephmancuso]

the logic of this is on line 822 of the Model class.

after looking at these examples more closely. most of the examples i believe is how the IDE is representing the classes object as a string.

the only thing that actuallt threw me for a trip was this line

In [30]: new_session = SomeModel()

In [31]: new_session.token_expires_at = pendulum.now()

In [32]: new_session.token_expires_at
Out[32]: '2022-12-20 11:06:29'

this is a bit confusing but its how the model class is converting the datetime to get ready for saving the date to the database (as a string). that part happens.

you can actually modify this behavior in your own application by overriding tis method on your model to this:

    def get_new_datetime_string(self, _datetime=None):
        """
        Given an optional datetime value, constructs and returns a new datetime string.
        If no datetime is specified, returns the current time.

        :rtype: list
        """
        return _datetime

this would not convert the datetime immediately to a string.

this change in the package actually doesn't fail any tests but with that being said i don't feel comfortable making that change right now.
i believe that when setting a date onto a model to be later saved, it should be manipulated before saving it onto the model.