to_xml datetime format regression

I've been investigating this, and it looks like if you set ActiveRecord::Base.time_zone_aware_attributes to true, the problem goes away.

I checked out the v3.0.0 tag, and this test also fails in Rails 3.0.0.

Here is a video of the test failing on 3.0.0:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrrWA7c9L1c

Here is a video of the test passing with time zone aware attributes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3UV-oCEmP4

I'm not convinced that there has been a regression during Rails 3.0.x. I do agree this is strange behavior. Given the "time_zone_aware_attributes" method, I wonder if this strange behavior is expected? It seems to me "time_zone_aware_attributes" should always be set to true, shouldn't it?

Ah, and I was about to submit a patch :-). I'm happy with ActiveRecord::Base.time_zone_aware_attributes approach and it certainly makes sense to set it to true by default.

I haven't run the tests against 3.0.0 so it's hard to say why they fail without looking into it (maybe Base.time_zone_aware_attributes should be explicitly set). But in any case, I've noticed this whole formatting discrepancy because of failing specs in my app after Rails 3.0.3 upgrade.

Seems ActiveRecord::Base.time_zone_aware_attributes is set to true by default. But I still get the error when it is set to true as it was in my project.
Adding 'raw_value = raw_value.in_time_zone if raw_value.respond_to?(:in_time_zone)' as Mike suggests in his gist fixes the problem. But that is not necessary in 3.0.1 where this problem does not occur. Strange. What could be the cause? Also, as mention in ticket 6054 this problem does not occur with to_json.

Aaron: Your video of the test passing is marked as private. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3UV-oCEmP4

Aaron, unfortunately flipping ActiveRecord::Base.time_zone_aware_attributes doesn't seem to affect datetime formatting. Please see https://gist.github.com/734332 (view raw).

Let me follow-up with a patch...

Mike: thanks for the update, but with your patch keep in mind that the fix you provided earlier by changing the value in ActiveModel::Serializers::Xml::Serializer::Attribute was not necessary in earlier versions. So I assume the problem must originate somewhere else?

(from [6dcde27f3aeb499b0776b447cde82c5e50fc8ede]) Take into account current time zone when serializing datetime values [#6096 to_xml datetime format regression state:resolved]

Signed-off-by: José Valim jose.valim@gmail.com
https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/6dcde27f3aeb499b0776b447cde82...

omega watch