Level 75
I don't understand what you are trying to accomplish, can you give a better example?
Feb 27, 2023
11
Level 7
Make Laravel (and Livewire) think we're in the past
I'm working very heavily with dates and while developing, would like to have the app think we're in a past date so that I can use the app and see what it would look like. Mind you that I know how to do this on my unit tests and that works just fine, but I'd like to be able to actually use the app normally.
Things I've tried:
Adding a middleware with something like this:
$knownDate = Carbon::create(config('app.fixed_date'));
Carbon::setTestNow($knownDate);
This kind of works but breaks anything that has a form because the CSRF token is validated against the real date, not the one provided by Carbon:now(). This also breaks Livewire for the same reason.
So I tried completely removing the CSRF middleware and any mentions to @csrf but for some reason Laravel will not let me log in anymore (I'm using a stock Jetstream starting scaffolding with Laravel 10). This also seems like a pain in the butt to do every time I wish to test in this way.
I suspect the key here is to force Laravel's CSRF token generation to use my fake date but I can't figure it out. Any ideas on this or any other potential solutions would be very welcome!
Level 7
Oh, let me try again.
Imagine you have a Blade view that lists a collection of music events. The list shows the past events in red and the future events in green. I want to fake the app's date so that I can reload the page and see some events in red and some events in green. That's what I mean by faking the date; making Laravel think that today's date and time (aka what Carbon::now() returns) is a different date than what it currently is.
Obviously this is a massively (massively) simplified version of what I need to do, but if I can achieve this, then I'm good.
Level 75
Just have some events and use some past dates.
Level 7
Would you care to elaborate what you mean by "have some events"?
Level 75
@Chill your music events.
Level 7
@jlrdw As I said, I have a very complex object graph so that's not practical in my case. If I "just have some events and use some past dates" I would have to create and recreate the data every single time I want to test in this way. Possible? Yes. Also, massively impractical. If I can fake an arbitrary now() date, I only have to copy the production data over to my local system and see exactly what would happen on any arbitrary date.
Note: The music events above are just a simplified example (my app has nothing to do with music events).
Level 51
@Chill, the less vague you are here the more help you can get.
I would have to create and recreate the data every single time I want to test in this way. Possible?
Yes, This is generally how testing works. The test creates the data. To perform the test then tears it back down. again.
Level 1
@jlrdw good
Level 7
@webrobert To be clear, I'm trying to get a generic way to solve this, not a specific "do this, do that" kind of answer. There may have been some confusion because the word "test" may mean different things. My question is not about unit/integration/etc tests, it's about "using" the app (aka manually testing).
The question that needs answered here is:
Is there a way to make Laravel think it's a different date other than what it currently is?
Perhaps the answer is no, and that's OK.
Level 1
how to enable our terminal on symbol host on laravel project
Level 51
@ZohaibAhmed Make a new question. Don’t post in someone else’s thread.
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