Using date in Twig doesn't work

@benjy, thanks for the reply.

I did some more digging about and yes it is null. It would appear that you cannot access any value inside content within the PDF itself. I have tried and all work in debug view but not in the PDF itself. I thought Iwould try a different aproach. I read somewhere (docs?) about the preprocess specifically tor entity print. So created the code, accessed the variable required and set it. Code is:

function mytheme_preprocess_entity_print(&$variables){
  $datePoint = $variables['content'][0][0]['#view']->filter['myfilter']->value[0];
  $variables['datePoint'] = date('jS M Y',strtotime($datePoint));;
}

Works fine. Now in the entity-print--view--view.html.twig file I access that variable with {{datePoint}}. Again works fine in debug view but in PDF it prints "1st Jan 1970" which I assume is default for a null value.

So the question is am I being really stupid and missing something obvious?

I have created a front page to the PDF in the twig file and want to get this value to print on that front page. Everything else works fine, just this value I cannot access.

@benjy, sorry for the delay. So far beyond {{content}} and {{ entity_print_css }} I have had little success in getting anything else to print. I assumed if it was a bug it would have been reported, but as you say at the same time can't see anything else being done wrong. I will test it on a fresh install later and ensure it is not a conflict with another module. I am assumeing not as debug mode works.

I have been experementing more. So first thought, is this restricted to one variable or many? I tested various other EXISTING variables. All I have tested seem to work, such as:

<img src="/{{ base_path ~ directory }}/logo.png" />

So second thought, if I set a variable with a string will that work. So I did:

function mytheme_preprocess_entity_print(&$variables){
  $datePoint = $variables['content'][0][0]['#view']->filter['myfilter']->value[0];
  $variables['datePoint'] = date('jS M Y',strtotime($datePoint));
  $variables['wibble'] = "It is working!";
}

And then in the twig file:

...
---- {{datePoint}} ----
  **** {{wibble}} ***
...

Both print fine in debug view, in PDF view wibble prints fine but the date still remains wrong as described previously. So this narrows it down, or at least it does to me. Before going further I wanted to double check so I have altered the preprocess file to:

function mytheme_preprocess_entity_print(&$variables){
  $datePoint = $variables['content'][0][0]['#view']->filter['myfilter']->value[0];
  $variables['datePoint'] = date('jS M Y',strtotime($datePoint));
  $variables['wibble'] = "It is working!";
  dump($variables['datePoint']);
  dump($variables['wibble']);
}

Ignore the fact that PDF throws an error when using dump, and the fact I should have looked at this earlier, I get the info I need to figure it out. So on debug view works as it should, in PDF view though, date is wrong. So indicating at this point there is an issue with $variables['content'][0][0]['#view']. Using that and dump I think I have figured it out:

In debug view use:
$datePoint = $variables['content'][0][0]['#view']->filter['myfilter']->value[0];

but PDF use:

$datePoint = $variables['content'][0]['#view']->filter['myfilter']->value[0];

And that works fine, except now debug view shows wrong date.

So I have a solution that works for the real PDF. This leads to two questions:

• Is there a way to check if it is PDF or debug view in the preprocess function? That way I can swap the variable to what is required.
• I shouldn't need above point, unless my understanding is wrong. Why would the this be different between debug and PDF view?

Hi Benjy,

Give me a few days and I will give it a try and report back.

Nick