NAME

       DBIx::Class::InflateColumn::DateTime - Auto-create DateTime objects from date and datetime
       columns.

SYNOPSIS

       Load this component and then declare one or more columns to be of the datetime, timestamp
       or date datatype.

         package Event;
         use base 'DBIx::Class::Core';

         __PACKAGE__->load_components(qw/InflateColumn::DateTime/);
         __PACKAGE__->add_columns(
           starts_when => { data_type => 'datetime' }
           create_date => { data_type => 'date' }
         );

       Then you can treat the specified column as a DateTime object.

         print "This event starts the month of ".
           $event->starts_when->month_name();

       If you want to set a specific timezone and locale for that field, use:

         __PACKAGE__->add_columns(
           starts_when => { data_type => 'datetime', timezone => "America/Chicago", locale => "de_DE" }
         );

       If you want to inflate no matter what data_type your column is, use inflate_datetime or
       inflate_date:

         __PACKAGE__->add_columns(
           starts_when => { data_type => 'varchar', inflate_datetime => 1 }
         );

         __PACKAGE__->add_columns(
           starts_when => { data_type => 'varchar', inflate_date => 1 }
         );

       It's also possible to explicitly skip inflation:

         __PACKAGE__->add_columns(
           starts_when => { data_type => 'datetime', inflate_datetime => 0 }
         );

       NOTE: Don't rely on "InflateColumn::DateTime" to parse date strings for you.  The column
       is set directly for any non-references and "InflateColumn::DateTime" is completely
       bypassed.  Instead, use an input parser to create a DateTime object. For instance, if your
       user input comes as a 'YYYY-MM-DD' string, you can use "DateTime::Format::ISO8601" thusly:

         use DateTime::Format::ISO8601;
         my $dt = DateTime::Format::ISO8601->parse_datetime('YYYY-MM-DD');

DESCRIPTION

       This module figures out the type of DateTime::Format::* class to inflate/deflate with
       based on the type of DBIx::Class::Storage::DBI::* that you are using.  If you switch from
       one database to a different one your code should continue to work without modification
       (though note that this feature is new as of 0.07, so it may not be perfect yet - bug
       reports to the list very much welcome).

       If the data_type of a field is "date", "datetime" or "timestamp" (or a derivative of these
       datatypes, e.g. "timestamp with timezone"), this module will automatically call the
       appropriate parse/format method for deflation/inflation as defined in the storage class.
       For instance, for a "datetime" field the methods "parse_datetime" and "format_datetime"
       would be called on deflation/inflation. If the storage class does not provide a
       specialized inflator/deflator, "[parse|format]_datetime" will be used as a fallback. See
       "Formatters And Stringification" in DateTime for more information on date formatting.

       For more help with using components, see "USING" in DBIx::Class::Manual::Component.

   register_column
       Chains with the "register_column" in DBIx::Class::Row method, and sets up datetime columns
       appropriately.  This would not normally be directly called by end users.

       In the case of an invalid date, DateTime will throw an exception.  To bypass these
       exceptions and just have the inflation return undef, use the "datetime_undef_if_invalid"
       option in the column info:

           "broken_date",
           {
               data_type => "datetime",
               default_value => '0000-00-00',
               is_nullable => 1,
               datetime_undef_if_invalid => 1
           }

USAGE NOTES

       If you have a datetime column with an associated "timezone", and subsequently
       create/update this column with a DateTime object in the DateTime::TimeZone::Floating
       timezone, you will get a warning (as there is a very good chance this will not have the
       result you expect). For example:

         __PACKAGE__->add_columns(
           starts_when => { data_type => 'datetime', timezone => "America/Chicago" }
         );

         my $event = $schema->resultset('EventTZ')->create({
           starts_at => DateTime->new(year=>2007, month=>12, day=>31, ),
         });

       The warning can be avoided in several ways:

       Fix your broken code
           When calling "set_time_zone" on a Floating DateTime object, the timezone is simply set
           to the requested value, and no time conversion takes place. It is always a good idea
           to be supply explicit times to the database:

             my $event = $schema->resultset('EventTZ')->create({
               starts_at => DateTime->new(year=>2007, month=>12, day=>31, time_zone => "America/Chicago" ),
             });

       Suppress the check on per-column basis
             __PACKAGE__->add_columns(
               starts_when => { data_type => 'datetime', timezone => "America/Chicago", floating_tz_ok => 1 }
             );

       Suppress the check globally
           Set the environment variable DBIC_FLOATING_TZ_OK to some true value.

       Putting extra attributes like timezone, locale or floating_tz_ok into extra => {} has been
       DEPRECATED because this gets you into trouble using DBIx::Class::Schema::Versioned.
       Instead put it directly into the columns definition like in the examples above. If you
       still use the old way you'll see a warning - please fix your code then!

SEE ALSO

       More information about the add_columns method, and column metadata, can be found in the
       documentation for DBIx::Class::ResultSource.
       Further discussion of problems inherent to the Floating timezone: Floating DateTimes and
       $dt->set_time_zone

FURTHER QUESTIONS?

       Check the list of additional DBIC resources.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       This module is free software copyright by the DBIx::Class (DBIC) authors. You can
       redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the DBIx::Class library.