How to use JDate / HTMLHelper inside model?

Question

So I have this component (built with JCB) where I need to display a saved datetime from the db (without seconds, but that's not my focus right now). Because of some limitations, I cannot simply declare use statements at the top of the model.

I'm now at the point that I called the JDate like so:

$date = new Joomla\CMS\Date\Date($item->kickoff);
$datenow = new JDate($item->kickoff);
$dateHtml =  '';
echo '<pre>' . var_export($item->kickoff,true) . '</pre>';
echo '<pre>' . var_export($date,true) . '</pre>';
$item->calculated_name =  $dateHtml;

The export gives me:

'2020-07-30 12:00:00'

Joomla\CMS\Date\Date::__set_state(array(
   'tz' => DateTimeZone::__set_state(array(
       'timezone_type' => 2,
       'timezone' => 'GMT',
   )),
   'date' => '2020-07-30 12:00:00.000000',
   'timezone_type' => 2,
   'timezone' => 'GMT',
))

I should now be able to use the information from the export, but I cannot. I cannot access $date->date or $date->get('date') because it's in set state.

I'm not able to use HtmlHelper because I cannot use it like so:

$dateHtml = new Joomla\CMS\HTML\HTMLHelper($date, Text::_('DATE_FORMAT_FILTER_DATETIME'));

My goal: Access the kickoff date calculated with the offset (Joomla installation timezone)

Any hints?

Answer 1

Joomla\CMS\Date\Date doesn't have $date property or get() method. Use $date->format($format) to format the date where $format is the date format.

To format a date using Joomla\CMS\HTML\HTMLHelper, call its underscore method with date as first argument, followed by date and format:

Joomla\CMS\HTML\HTMLHelper::_('date', $item->kickoff, $format);