How to use $dates array and Factory together

I have a factory with the below definition

public function definition()  {      $startDate = Carbon::createFromFormat('Y', $this->faker->year);      $endDate = $startDate->addYear();        return [          'name' => $startDate->year,          'start_date' => $startDate->format('Y-m-d'),          'end_date' => $endDate->format('Y-m-d'),      ];  }  

So this generates an array like below

[      'name' => 2020,      'start_date' => '2020-01-30',      'end_date' => '2021-01-30'  ]  

The above worked as expected until a requirement to return the start_date field and the end_date field arose. So in my model I added:

protected $dates = ['created_at', 'updated_at', 'start_date', 'end_date'];  

In my validators, I validate that the format is Y-m-d.

public function rules()  {      return [          'name' => 'required|unique:academic_years',          'start_date' => 'required|date_format:Y-m-d|before_or_equal:end_date',          'end_date' => 'required|date_format:Y-m-d',      ];  }  

I also have the below test:

public function should_throw_error_if_date_format_is_invalid()  {      Permission::factory()->state(['name' => 'create academic year'])->create();        $user = User::factory()->create();      $user->givePermissionTo('create academic year');        $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->postJson('/api/academic-years', [          'name' => $this->faker->year,          'start_date' => '01-01-2019',          'end_date' => '2019-01-01'      ])->assertStatus(422);        $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->postJson('/api/academic-years', [          'name' => $this->faker->year,          'end_date' => '01-01-2019',          'start_date' => '2019-01-01'      ])->assertStatus(422);  }  

The test fails, but If I remove the $dates array, the test passes. On checking the object passed into the request I see a different date format {"name":1995,"start_date":"1995-04-04T00:00:00.000000Z","end_date":"1995-04-04T00:00:00.000000Z"} from the format provided in the Factory.

How can I resolve this?

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66936969/how-to-use-dates-array-and-factory-together April 04, 2021 at 08:11AM