[TYPO3-project-formidable] how to combine _two_ form-fields to be inserted/updated as a _single_ db-field

[Michael Wilde]

Hi there,

1st Question:
=============

within my application I would like to read the values of one date _and_ 
one time form-field and store it together as a _single_ timestamp in a 
database. And vice versa it should be possible to read a _single_ 
timestamp and display it as two seperate form fields again.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The table looks as follows:

uid | pid | ... | my_timestamp
----+-----+ ... +-------------
1   | 2   | ... | 1169485200

within my form.xml file I've got two form-fields "my_date" and 
"my_time". "my_date" is a DATE renderlet and "my_time" is a TEXT 
renderlet. Both form-fields should be combined to a single timestamp to 
be inserted into the database (--> "my_timestamp").

To do so I've used beforeinsertion and beforerender processes in the 
form.xml datahandler:

<process>
   <beforeinsertion>
     <userobj>
       <php><![CDATA[				
         $oThis = t3lib_div::makeInstance("tx_myapp_pi1");
         $aData = array_pop(func_get_args());
         return $oThis->beforeInsertationOfBirthday($aData);
       ]]></php>
     </userobj>
   </beforeinsertion>		
   <beforerender>
     <userobj>
       <php><![CDATA[				
         $oThis = t3lib_div::makeInstance("tx_myapp_pi1");
         $aData = array_pop(func_get_args());
         return $oThis->beforeRenderOfBirthday($aData);
       ]]></php>
     </userobj>
   </beforerender>	
</process>

The content of the two user-functions:

function beforeInsertationOfBirthday($aData) {
   $aData['my_timestamp'] =
       $this->convertToTimestamp($aData['my_date'],$aData['my_time']);
   return $aData;
}

function beforeRenderOfBirthday($aData) {
   $aData['my_date'] = $this->convertToDate($aData['my_timestamp']);
   $aData['my_time'] = $this->convertToTime($aData['my_timestamp']);
   return $aData;
}

The problem here is that a valid timestamp is correctly read out of the 
database and it is correctly rendered, but it is not possible to insert 
a timestamp into the database. The value for "my_date" and "my_time" in 
the variable $aData of beforeInsertationOfBirthday() seem to be not 
available.

Everything works fine as long as the name of the form-fields are the 
same as the names of the table-columns in the database. But I can't 
figure out how to use fieldnames that do not exist in the database.

This means: everything works fine for a field with the name "my_date2" 
and a table-column with the name "my_date2". Here the data is inserted 
correctly. But it is not possible for me to change the field name to 
e.g. "my_date3". Further it is not possible to use a second field 
"my_time2", combine it with "my_date2" and insert the resulting 
timestamp as "my_timestamp" into the database.

Hope anyone that understood the problem can help me further on this.


2st Question:
=============

Is there any possibility to store dates before 1970 as timestamp into a 
database using Formidable?

TIA,
Michael.