How to store timestamp without @Create/UpdateDateColumn?

Issue type:

[x] question [ ] bug report [ ] feature request [ ] documentation issue

Database system/driver:

[ ] cordova [ ] mongodb [ ] mssql [ ] mysql / mariadb [ ] oracle [x] postgres [ ] sqlite [ ] sqljs [ ] websql

TypeORM version:

[ ] latest [x] @next [ ] 0.x.x (or put your version here)

Steps to reproduce or a small repository showing the problem:

@Entity()
export class Recipient {
  @ManyToOne(type => User, user => user.recipients, { primary: true })
  user: User;

  @ManyToOne(type => Message, message => message.recipients, { primary: true })
  message: Message;

  @Column({nullable: true})
  receivedAt;

  @Column({nullable: true})
  readAt;
}

I want to store a server-generated timestamp into the db. When the recipient gets inserted into the db receivedAt and readAt must be initiallty null, but once I’ll later update them I want them to be the actual date. How do I achieve it?

[pleerock]

Its solvable using DEFAULT constraint on a column:

@Column({ default: () => `now()` })
  receivedAt

[pleerock]

@Column()
receivingDate: Date

the following code is already “db-agnostic”. If you don’t specify a type “Date” automatically will find its database related type.