Fix Entity::toRawArray() returning a Time instance for assigned date attributes

docs/changelogs/v4.7.7.md

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ Release Date: Unreleased
 
 ## Bugs Fixed
 
+- **Entity:** Fixed a bug where `Entity::toRawArray()` returned a `Time` instance for a date attribute that had been assigned a string value, while the same attribute was returned as a string when the entity was populated from the database. `toRawArray()` now returns the string representation of date attributes in both cases.
 - **Security:** Fixed a bug where `Security::__construct()` threw a `TypeError` when the CSRF cookie was an array, causing an HTTP 500 response for affected requests.
 - **Worker Mode:** Fixed a bug where every request that ended with an uncaught exception, including a `404 Page Not Found` without a 404 override, called `exit()` in the exception handler. This ended the worker script, so FrankenPHP booted a new one, and the worker loop skipped its cleanup after the request. The exception handler now returns to the worker loop.
 

system/Entity/Entity.php

@@ -230,6 +230,20 @@ public function toArray(bool $onlyChanged = false, bool $cast = true, bool $recu
      */
     public function toRawArray(bool $onlyChanged = false, bool $recursive = false): array
     {
+        // Date attributes that were assigned at runtime are mutated to
+        // Time instances when they are set (see __set()), while the same
+        // attributes hold plain strings when the entity is populated
+        // from the database (see injectRawData()). The raw value of a
+        // date attribute is its string representation, so normalize any
+        // Time instances back to strings to keep the output consistent.
+        $attributes = $this->attributes;
+
+        foreach ($attributes as $key => $value) {
+            if ($value instanceof Time && in_array($key, $this->dates, true)) {
+                $attributes[$key] = (string) $value;
+            }
+        }
+
         $convert = static function ($value) use (&$convert, $recursive) {
             if (! $recursive) {
                 return $value;
@@ -260,14 +274,14 @@ public function toRawArray(bool $onlyChanged = false, bool $recursive = false):
         // When returning everything
         if (! $onlyChanged) {
             return $recursive
-                ? array_map($convert, $this->attributes)
-                : $this->attributes;
+                ? array_map($convert, $attributes)
+                : $attributes;
         }
 
         // When filtering by changed values only
         $return = [];
 
-        foreach ($this->attributes as $key => $value) {
+        foreach ($attributes as $key => $value) {
             // Special handling for arrays of entities in recursive mode
             // Skip hasChanged() and do per-entity comparison directly
             if ($recursive && is_array($value) && $this->containsOnlyEntities($value)) {

tests/system/Entity/EntityTest.php

@@ -80,6 +80,29 @@ public function testSetArrayToPropertyNamedAttributes(): void
         $this->assertSame($expected, $entity->toRawArray());
     }
 
+    public function testToRawArrayReturnsStringForAssignedDateAttribute(): void
+    {
+        $entity = new class () extends Entity {
+            protected $dates = ['created_at', 'updated_at', 'deleted_at'];
+        };
+
+        // Simulate an entity fetched from the database.
+        $entity->injectRawData([
+            'created_at' => '2023-12-07 04:00:48',
+            'updated_at' => '2023-12-07 04:00:48',
+            'deleted_at' => null,
+        ]);
+
+        $entity->updated_at = '2023-12-12 12:12:12';
+
+        // The raw value must stay the assigned string, not a Time instance.
+        $this->assertSame('2023-12-12 12:12:12', $entity->toRawArray()['updated_at']);
+
+        // Retrieval still mutates the value into a Time instance.
+        $this->assertInstanceOf(Time::class, $entity->updated_at);
+        $this->assertSame('2023-12-12 12:12:12', $entity->updated_at->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'));
+    }
+
     public function testSetGetAttributesMethod(): void
     {
         $entity = new class () extends Entity {