DateTimeField now auto converts valid datetime isostrings into dates (#343)

docs/changelog.rst

@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ Changelog
 
 Changes in 0.8.2
 ================
+- DateTimeField now auto converts valid datetime isostrings into dates (#343)
+- DateTimeField now uses dateutil for parsing if available (#343)
 - Fixed Doc.objects(read_preference=X) not setting read preference (#352)
 - Django session ttl index expiry fixed (#329)
 - Fixed pickle.loads (#342)

mongoengine/fields.py

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import urllib2
 import uuid
 import warnings
 from operator import itemgetter
+
 try:
     import dateutil
 except ImportError:
@@ -353,6 +354,11 @@ class BooleanField(BaseField):
 class DateTimeField(BaseField):
     """A datetime field.
 
+    Uses the python-dateutil library if available alternatively use time.strptime
+    to parse the dates.  Note: python-dateutil's parser is fully featured and when
+    installed you can utilise it to convert varing types of date formats into valid
+    python datetime objects.
+
     Note: Microseconds are rounded to the nearest millisecond.
       Pre UTC microsecond support is effecively broken.
       Use :class:`~mongoengine.fields.ComplexDateTimeField` if you
@@ -360,13 +366,11 @@ class DateTimeField(BaseField):
     """
 
     def validate(self, value):
-        if not isinstance(value, (datetime.datetime, datetime.date)):
+        new_value = self.to_mongo(value)
+        if not isinstance(new_value, (datetime.datetime, datetime.date)):
             self.error(u'cannot parse date "%s"' % value)
 
     def to_mongo(self, value):
-        return self.prepare_query_value(None, value)
-
-    def prepare_query_value(self, op, value):
         if value is None:
             return value
         if isinstance(value, datetime.datetime):
@@ -376,10 +380,16 @@ class DateTimeField(BaseField):
         if callable(value):
             return value()
 
+        if not isinstance(value, basestring):
+            return None
+
         # Attempt to parse a datetime:
         if dateutil:
-            return dateutil.parser.parse(value)
-        # value = smart_str(value)
+            try:
+                return dateutil.parser.parse(value)
+            except ValueError:
+                return None
+
         # split usecs, because they are not recognized by strptime.
         if '.' in value:
             try:
@@ -404,6 +414,9 @@ class DateTimeField(BaseField):
                 except ValueError:
                     return None
 
+    def prepare_query_value(self, op, value):
+        return self.to_mongo(value)
+
 
 class ComplexDateTimeField(StringField):
     """

setup.py

@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ if sys.version_info[0] == 3:
         extra_opts['packages'].append("tests")
         extra_opts['package_data'] = {"tests": ["fields/mongoengine.png", "fields/mongodb_leaf.png"]}
 else:
-    extra_opts['tests_require'] = ['nose', 'coverage', 'blinker', 'django>=1.4.2', 'PIL', 'jinja2==2.6']
+    extra_opts['tests_require'] = ['nose', 'coverage', 'blinker', 'django>=1.4.2', 'PIL', 'jinja2==2.6', 'python-dateutil==1.5']
     extra_opts['packages'] = find_packages(exclude=('tests',))
 
 setup(name='mongoengine',

tests/fields/fields.py

@@ -408,9 +408,16 @@ class FieldTest(unittest.TestCase):
         log.time = datetime.date.today()
         log.validate()
 
+        log.time = datetime.datetime.now().isoformat(' ')
+        log.validate()
+
+        if dateutil:
+            log.time = datetime.datetime.now().isoformat('T')
+            log.validate()
+
         log.time = -1
         self.assertRaises(ValidationError, log.validate)
-        log.time = '1pm'
+        log.time = 'ABC'
         self.assertRaises(ValidationError, log.validate)
 
     def test_datetime_tz_aware_mark_as_changed(self):
@@ -497,6 +504,7 @@ class FieldTest(unittest.TestCase):
         d1 = datetime.datetime(1970, 01, 01, 00, 00, 01)
         log = LogEntry()
         log.date = d1
+        log.validate()
         log.save()
 
         for query in (d1, d1.isoformat(' ')):