Date Accessor: Model Date to Human Carbon Date

UPDATED APRIL 2017

If you need to access a column date as human date here is how:

2.Inside of your model:

    // NOTE : Carbon date setup is not required for accessor for human dates i.e. you can remove form your model if you don't want model to cast date to string 
    /**
     * Carbon date setup
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function getDates()
    {
        return ['created_at', 'updated_at'];
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getCreatedAtAttribute()
    {
        return  Carbon::parse($this->attributes['created_at'])->diffForHumans();
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getUpdatedAtAttribute()
    {
        return  Carbon::parse($this->attributes['updated_at'])->diffForHumans();
    }

9 MONTHS AGO

for some reason it was difficult to find a simple answer. If you need to access a column date as human date here is how:

1.when you create a custom date columns, lets say 'published_at' ensure that the you create the column with $table->timestamp('published_at'); if you use $table->datetime( )or any other date / time stamp you can run into accessor issues.

2.Inside of you model ensure you have $getDates to include the custom column name i.e. 'published_at' :

          /**
           * Carbon date setup
           *
           * @return array
           */
          public function getDates()
          {
               return ['created_at', 'updated_at', 'published_at'];
          }

3.AND that you also have have time stamp set to true in your model i.e.

      /**
       * Indicates if the model should be timestamped.
       *
       * @var bool
       */
      public $timestamps = true;

4.then create the accessor. In the cast of 'published_at' you method name would be ' getPublishedAtAttribute'. Both of these work

      /**
        * Published at accessor
        *
        * @param $date
        * @return string
        */
       public function getPublishedAtAttribute($date)
       {
           return Carbon::parse($date)->diffForHumans();
       }


OR 


       /**
        * Published at accessor
        *
        * @param $date
        * @return string
        */
       public function getPublishedAtAttribute($date)
        {
            return $this->attributes['published_at'] = Carbon::parse($date)->diffForHumans();
        }

5.you then access it as follows:

        $getArticle = Article::find(1);

        // object method
         $getArticle->published_at

    OR

       // array example
    $getArticle->toArray()['published_at']
    

hope that helps