Setting a model attribute to some sql value in Django

Question

I have a model called job and I want to set a datetime attribute (started_time) to MySQL now() value. how can I do that in Django?

I don't want to use the model auto_now or auto_now_add methods, since I have other applications who share the same DB and I don't want to handle timezones, thus I want to delegate that to MySQL

Tomasz Zieliński · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-08 19:58:53Z

2

Don't use auto_now/auto_add_now, they are problematic. Instead, do this:

  started_time = models.DateTimeField(default=datetime.utcnow)

-- assuming that you're working with timestamps in UTC.

edited Nov 8, 2010 at 19:58

answered Nov 8, 2010 at 12:30

Tomasz Zieliński

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2 Comments

meder omuraliev Over a year ago

Can you expand on how they are problematic?

Tomasz Zieliński Over a year ago

Google for "auto_add and auto_add_now in admin fieldsets". Also, they use datetime.now() which is dependent on os timezone settings. You might say that those are features - not issues, but for me the less magic the better.

Dmitry Shevchenko · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-08 10:14:55Z

0

Use MySQL trigger.

answered Nov 8, 2010 at 10:14

Dmitry Shevchenko

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