A CBehavior (for the Yii-framework) that automatically converts to/from DATE/DATETIME values

GDateTimeBehavior.php

<?php

/**
 * This behavior implements synchronous timestamp-accessors for DATE and DATETIME values
 * by convention - attributes with a "_date" or "_datetime" suffix, respectively, can be
 * accessed as UNIX timestamps (integers) by leaving out the suffix; for example, a
 * DATETIME attribute $test->created_datetime can be accessed as $test->created.
 *
 * This behavior can be attached to a CModel or descendants, e.g. CFormModel, CActiveRecord, etc.
 *
 * @method CModel getOwner()
 */
class GDateTimeAccessors extends CBehavior
{
    /**
     * @var string suffix for DATE attributes.
     */
    public static $date_suffix = '_date';

    /**
     * @var string suffix for DATETIME attributes.
     */
    public static $datetime_suffix = '_datetime';

    /**
     * @var string date format when updating DATE attributes; defaults to MySQL DATE format.
     * @see date()
     */
    public static $date_format = 'Y-m-d';

    /**
     * @var string date/time format when updating DATE attributes; defaults to MySQL DATETIME format.
     * @see date()
     */
    public static $datetime_format = 'Y-m-d H:i:s';

    /**
     * @param string $name
     * @return bool
     */
    public function canGetProperty($name)
    {
        $names = $this->getOwner()->attributeNames();

        return in_array($name . self::$date_suffix, $names)
            || in_array($name . self::$datetime_suffix, $names);
    }

    /**
     * @param string $name
     * @return bool
     */
    public function canSetProperty($name)
    {
        return $this->canGetProperty($name);
    }

    /**
     * Dynamically convert a DATE or DATETIME attribute to a timestamp.
     *
     * @param string $name
     * @return int|null
     * @throws CException for invalid values in the DATE or DATETIME attribute
     */
    public function __get($name)
    {
        /**
         * @var CModel $owner
         */

        $owner = $this->getOwner();

        $names = $owner->attributeNames();

        if (in_array($name . self::$date_suffix, $names)) {
            $attr = $name . self::$date_suffix;
        } else {
            $attr = $name . self::$datetime_suffix;
        }

        $value = $owner->{ $attr };

        if ($value) {
            $time = strtotime($value);

            if ($time === false) {
                //throw new CException("property ".get_class($owner)."::\$$attr contains an invalid value: ".$value);
                return null;
            }

            return $time;
        }

        return null;
    }

    /**
     * Dynamically convert a timestamp to a DATE or DATETIME value.
     *
     * @param string   $name
     * @param int|null $value
     *
     * @throws CException for invalid values; only integer or null-values are accepted
     * @return void
     */
    public function __set($name, $value)
    {
        $owner = $this->getOwner();

        if ($value !== null && ! is_int($value)) {
            throw new CException("property ".get_class($owner)."::\$$name accepts only integer or null-values");
        }

        $names = $owner->attributeNames();

        if (in_array($name . self::$date_suffix, $names)) {
            $owner->{ $name . self::$date_suffix } = ($value === null)
                ? null
                : date(self::$date_format, $value);
        } else {
            $owner->{ $name . self::$datetime_suffix } = ($value === null)
                ? null
                : date(self::$datetime_format, $value);
        }
    }
}