Howdy All,
I'd like to make sure that every timestamp that is stored in the database is in UTC. I set ActiveRecord::Base.default_timezone to :utc and that takes care of the automatically-managed updated_at and created_at fields, but the rest are still at the mercy of the code remembering to make sure that times are converted to UTC before calling save on the model.
At first glance, it seems that forcing the developer to manually convert ensure that all times are in UTC before saving is error prone. Wouldn't it be simpler to force all times to UTC on their way to being stored in the database if default_timezone == :utc?
I've patched activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/quoting.rb to have the quote() method covert Time and DateTime objects to UTC before producting the quoted value for use with the database:
.... when Time, DateTime if ActiveRecord::Base.default_timezone == :utc # Make sure we've got UTC going into the database "'#{quoted_date(value.dup.utc)}'" else "'#{quoted_date(value)}'" end ....
The dup is because the utc method is side-effecting and I prefer not to catch the caller by surprise with a changed value.
This works for me and passes the ActiveRecord unit tests with the MySQL adaptor.
My question is: is this a reasonable approach to solving this problem? It's a simple change, so I'm wondering why it hasn't been done in the past... Some unintended consequence I'm not thinking of?
Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks, Greg