chore: Change default datetime format

[tienvx]

• Change the default formats. The previous default formats I copied them from https://github.com/pact-foundation/pact-specification/tree/version-4#supported-generators. I think the new formats make more sense to end-user.
• Doing so also fixed a failed test: on this specific day 2023-11-30, the value become "2023-12-334T17:15:07", not "2023-11-334T17:15:07" as expected. I'm not sure what is the problem here.

[Lewiscowles1986]

both of your example date formats are non-trivially incorrect.

"2023-12-334T17:15:07", not "2023-11-334T17:15:07" as expected. I'm not sure what is the problem here.

it should surely be 2023-12-30T17:15:07. What is parsing these odd formats? PHP date format is very different from what you have here https://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.format.php

[Lewiscowles1986]

this also does not seem to match pact-foundation/docs.pact.io#88 (comment)

[tienvx]

• There are 2 "types" of datetime matchers:
  • Specification v2
    • These matchers that are actually regex (specification v2) matcher, with different regex pattern
    • They are:
      • dateISO8601 use ISO8601_DATE_FORMAT pattern
      • timeISO8601 use ISO8601_TIME_FORMAT pattern
      • dateTimeISO8601 use ISO8601_DATETIME_FORMAT pattern
      • dateTimeWithMillisISO8601 use ISO8601_DATETIME_WITH_MILLIS_FORMAT pattern
      • timestampRFC3339 use RFC3339_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT pattern
    • I didn't touch them
  • Specification v3
    • These matchers that are defined in https://github.com/pact-foundation/pact-specification/tree/version-4#supported-matching-rules:
    • They are:
      • Timestamp (or DateTime?)
      • Time
      • Date
    • They need 1 "parameter":
      • format e.g. yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
    • The format must be based on the Java DateTimeFormatter (this is where I get the info from https://docs.pact.io/implementation_guides/rust/pact_matching#date-and-time-matchers-datetime-date-time)
    • The format is not related to PHP at all

About the format problem in those v3 matchers:

• The formats in Supported matching rules section of the specification are:
  • yyyy-MM-dd HH:ss:mm
  • yyyy-MM-dd
  • HH:ss:mm
• The formats in Supported generators section are:
  • YYYY-mm-DD'T'HH:mm:ss
  • yyyy-MM-dd
  • HH:mm::ss

They produce weird value. They are inconsistent. I think some of them are even invalid? I think they are just example values. But I was stupid. I didn't pay attention. I just blindly copied from the Supported generators section. And here we are in the situation of the PR's description.

So I am suggesting to change the default formats to:

• yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss (or even remove the T character, to become yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss ?)
• yyyy-MM-dd
• HH:mm:ss

[tienvx]

Given the information in the above comment

it should surely be 2023-12-30T17:15:07

If you manually set the system's date to 30 November 2023, and then run the test, the month will change from 11 to 12. Note the date 334 not 30 (but nothing wrong with it, it match the format DD, not dd).

What is parsing these odd formats?

I know it's Rust code, but I don't know exactly where it is in the pact-reference code base. I will update when I found it.

PHP date format is very different from what you have here https://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.format.php

Yes, it's Java date format, not PHP date format

this also does not seem to match pact-foundation/docs.pact.io#88 (comment)

Yes, those are regex-based matchers (specification v2), and I didn't touch them

[Lewiscowles1986]

Thanks, I really appreciate the consistent efforts you are making; I'm going to recuse myself rather than be unhelpful.