DateTime optionally containing microseconds

Rails
1

Hi all,

I’m sending DateTimes over soap to JADE agent system.

If I send DateTime.now over it is accepted fine… and ends up as:

2009-09-30T09:20:52.959452-03:00

However, if I convert a Rails model field to datetime and send it over
its of class DateTime but loses the microseconds. Which my SOAP
server inconveniently requires to be present.

@seller.deadline.to_datetime

ends up as:

2009-09-29T23:20:00-03:00

And is rejected.

I was able to get @seller.deadline.to_datetime to be accepted by
adding the microsecond portion of DateTime.now to it. But that seems
like an awful hack.

How do I ensure a given DateTime such as the one extracted from a
rails model is alays sent with the microsecond portion present over
SOAP?

thanks,
Aaron

    obj = EcommercePort.new
    obj.wiredump_dev = STDERR if $DEBUG

    time_periods = ArrayOfSellerTimePeriod.new
    #time_periods[0] = SellerTimePeriod.new

(@seller.deadline.to_datetime, @seller.openingOffer, @seller.alpha,
@seller.umin, @seller.deadline.to_datetime)
time_periods[0] = SellerTimePeriod.new
(@seller.deadline.to_datetime + DateTime.now.sec_fraction,
@seller.openingOffer.to_f, @seller.alpha, @seller.umin, DateTime.now)

    p time_periods[0]

    parameters = {
      :sellerID => @seller.sellerID,
      :maxPossPrice => @seller.openingOffer.to_f,
      :itemID => @seller.itemID,
      :deadline => DateTime.now,
      :timePeriods => time_periods
    }


    puts obj.clientGatewayCreateNewSeller(parameters)
2

On Sep 30, 2009, at 9:08 AM, Aaron B. wrote:

server inconveniently requires to be present.
adding the microsecond portion of DateTime.now to it. But that seems
obj.wiredump_dev = STDERR if $DEBUG

   parameters = {
     :sellerID => @seller.sellerID,
     :maxPossPrice => @seller.openingOffer.to_f,
     :itemID => @seller.itemID,
     :deadline => DateTime.now,
     :timePeriods => time_periods
   }


   puts obj.clientGatewayCreateNewSeller(parameters)

If you can use a Time instance rather than a Date, you can get the
format you want with something like this:

now = Time.now.utc
now.strftime(“%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%%sZ”)%[(‘.%03d’%[now.usec/1000]).sub(/
.?0+\z/,‘’)]

Note that the .sub() takes off trailing 0’s from the fractional time
which may not be something that you want. Basically, you need to roll
your own method (as you seem to have sensed). Seems like you can
create a similar method for your DateTime instance using
DateTime#sec_fraction like I’ve used Time#usec (microseconds; µs)
along with DateTime#strftime.

-Rob

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]