The datetimetformat, between_times, unixtimestamp, format_date, format_datetime and format_time HubL filters and functions now display warnings if they are called with a null argument. Currently, when a null argument is passed to them, the current date and time is substituted. This behavior is not something developers would expect and can have unexpected side-effects.
Starting on September 30, 2024, the date and time substituted for null values will stop updating and will always return September 30, 2024 00:00 UTC.
For example, on May 30, 2024, {{ null | format_date(short) }} will return 5/30/24 (the current date). On December 30, 2024 {{ null | format_date(short) }} will return 9/30/24 (the deprecation date).
This change is intended to make errors more visible when null values are passed into these filters. It's easy to pass a bad value into these filters and not notice because it displays the current date.
Defaulting to the current date also unintentionally prevented pages from being fully pre-rendered since the date and time changes on every execution. This change fixes that.
If you were relying on this behavior there are alternatives:
local_dt HubL variable which returns the current date and time using the time zone specified in the account's settings.today() function which gets the current day but does not get the current time.local_dt or the today() function meaning that it does not prevent caching and full pre-rendering.Questions or comments? Join us in the developer forums.