Override Cakephp 3.1 data type using typeMap()

Question

When I have a query:

$jobs = $this->Jobs->find('all', [
    'fields' => [
        'id',
        'existingdatetime',
        'newdatetime' => '"2016-05-10 16:12:10"',
    ],
]);

The existingdatetime is returned as a DateTime object, while the newdatetime is returned as a string, which makes sense because there is no data definition for the non-existent field newdatetime. Based on Cakephp-3.x: How to change the data type of a selected alias? I tried the following:

debug($jobs->typeMap());
$jobs->typeMap()->addDefaults([
    'Jobs.newdatetime' => 'datetime',
    'newdatetime' => 'datetime',
]); 
debug($jobs->typeMap());
$results = $jobs->all();
debug($results);

At first it appears that the TypeMap has been successfully updated, here's the old version:

/src/Controller/Admin/JobsController.php (line 97)

object(Cake\Database\TypeMap) {
    [protected] _defaults => [
        'Jobs.id' => 'integer',
        'id' => 'integer',
        'Jobs.existingdatetime' => 'datetime',
        'existingdatetime' => 'datetime'
    ]
    [protected] _types => []
}

And the new version as a result of calling addDefaults() it appears that the datatypes are updated fine...

/src/Controller/Admin/JobsController.php (line 102)

object(Cake\Database\TypeMap) {
    [protected] _defaults => [
        'Jobs.id' => 'integer',
        'id' => 'integer',
        'Jobs.existingdatetime' => 'datetime',
        'existingdatetime' => 'datetime',
        'Jobs.newdatetime' => 'datetime'
        'newdatetime' => 'datetime',
    ]
    [protected] _types => []
}

And yet the result still has newdatetime as a string:

/src/Controller/Admin/JobsController.php (line 106)

object(Cake\ORM\ResultSet) {
    'query' => object(Cake\ORM\Query) {
        '(help)' => 'This is a Query object, to get the results execute or iterate it.',
        'sql' => 'SELECT Jobs.id AS `Jobs__id`, Jobs.existingdatetime AS `Jobs__existingdatetime`, "2016-05-10 16:12:10" AS `newdatetime` FROM jobs Jobs',
        'params' => [],
        'defaultTypes' => [
            'Jobs.id' => 'integer',
            'id' => 'integer',
            'Jobs.existingdatetime' => 'datetime',
            'existingdatetime' => 'datetime',
            'Jobs.newdatetime' => 'datetime'
            'newdatetime' => 'datetime',
        ],
        'decorators' => (int) 0,
        ...snip...
    }
    'items' => [
        (int) 0 => object(App\Model\Entity\Job) {
            'id' => (int) 1,
            'existingdatetime' => object(Cake\I18n\Time) {
                'time' => '2016-04-27T03:21:32+1000',
                'timezone' => 'Australia/Melbourne',
                'fixedNowTime' => false
            },
            'newdatetime' => '2016-05-10 16:12:10',
            '[new]' => false,
            '[accessible]' => [
                '*' => true
            ],
            '[dirty]' => [],
            '[original]' => [],
            '[virtual]' => [],
            '[errors]' => [],
            '[repository]' => 'Jobs'
        }
    ]
}

What am I missing? Why can't I get my extra field to be a datetime?

Please don't suggest completely different approaches, in reality the field newdatetime is a complex left inner join subquery that I have taken out of this question to keep things simple.

Answer 1

It doesn't use the TypeMap function but it does convert the custom field into the datetime type you require

$jobs = $this->Jobs->find()
->select([ 'id', 'existingdatetime', 'newdatetime' => '"2016-05-10 16:12:10"' ])
->decorateResults(function ($row) {
    $row['newdatetime'] = new \Cake\I18n\Time($row['newdatetime']);
    return $row;
});

You can see more about it here: CakePHP 3 Decorate Results