Bugfix Issue #563: strftime Placeholders Rendered Literally in Document Header Date

Issue: #563
Date: 2026-08-26
Branch: fix/issue-563-strftime-doc-header

Symptom

Every generated document (Requirements, Test Specs, Test Plan docs) showed a broken print date in the header: %26/%18/%2026 instead of 26/08/2026.

Root Cause

tlStrftime() in lib/functions/php81_compat.php used IntlDateFormatter on PHP 8.1+ with intl extension. IntlDateFormatter expects ICU date patterns (e.g. dd/MM/yyyy), NOT strftime patterns (e.g. %d/%m/%Y). Passing strftime patterns to IntlDateFormatter silently produced wrong output.

The correct fallback path (converting strftime to date() format) was already present but never reached because IntlDateFormatter did not throw an exception.

Fix

Removed the broken IntlDateFormatter code path from tlStrftime(). The function now uses only the strftime-to-date() conversion, which correctly handles all strftime specifiers.

Additional fixes from code review:

• Added missing %W → W mapping (used by reqOverview.php)
• Moved %% literal-percent replacement to top of array to prevent corruption
• Updated docblock to reflect actual implementation

Files Changed

• lib/functions/php81_compat.php — tlStrftime() function rewritten

Blast Radius

15+ call sites across the codebase use tlStrftime() with strftime format strings. ALL of them now produce correct output on PHP 8.1+ with intl:

• lib/functions/print.inc.php:753 — document headers
• lib/functions/date_api.php:138 — all date displays
• lib/functions/lang_api.php:390,413 — localized date strings
• lib/functions/testcase.class.php:601,8472 — test case timestamps
• lib/results/ — various report date selectors
• lib/requirements/reqOverview.php:212 — requirement overview dates
• lib/codetrackerintegration/stashrestInterface.class.php:346 — integration dates

Verification

• php -l lib/functions/php81_compat.php — no syntax errors
• CLI test: tlStrftime('%d/%m/%Y', time()) returns correct 26/08/2026
• All strftime specifiers tested: %d, %m, %Y, %H, %M, %S, %W, %c
• Event Viewer: no new Error/Warning entries from the fix