From b68c2eb5687191fc9a354fc1a6d5d1dc7700e3d1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Timothy Allen <tim@treehouse.org.za>
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 2026 14:28:32 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Give the feed of an empty site the current date.

The feed passed NULL to strtotime() when there were no stories.
---
 feed.php                             |  6 ++++--
 tests/php/Pages/FeedAndImageTest.php | 11 +++++++++++
 2 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/feed.php b/feed.php
index 564c60c..c15cafb 100644
--- a/feed.php
+++ b/feed.php
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ $query = "SELECT MAX(`date`) FROM $table;";
 $result = $db->query($query) or db_fail();
 $most_recent = $result->fetch_row();
 $now = date("D, d M Y H:i:s O");
+// The date of the newest story, or now if there is none
+$last_date = $most_recent[0] ? date("D, d M Y H:i:s O", strtotime($most_recent[0])) : $now;
 
 echo '<?xml version="1.0"?>'."\n";
 echo '<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">'."\n";
@@ -27,14 +29,14 @@ echo '<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom=
     echo '<description>Most recent articles from '.xml_text(site_host()).'</description>'."\n";
     echo '<language>en-za</language>'."\n";
     echo '<pubDate>'.$now.'</pubDate>'."\n";
-    echo '<lastBuildDate>'.date("D, d M Y H:i:s O", strtotime($most_recent[0])).'</lastBuildDate>'."\n";
+    echo '<lastBuildDate>'.$last_date.'</lastBuildDate>'."\n";
     echo '<managingEditor>'.hidden_email(site_email('editor')).' (Editors)</managingEditor>'."\n";
     echo '<webMaster>'.hidden_email(site_email('webmaster')).' (Webmasters)</webMaster>'."\n";
     echo '<atom:link href="'.$site.'/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />'."\n";
       echo '<item>'."\n";
       echo '<title>Front Page</title>'."\n";
       echo '<link>'.$site.'/</link>'."\n";
-      echo '<pubDate>'.date("D, d M Y H:i:s O", strtotime($most_recent[0])).'</pubDate>'."\n";
+      echo '<pubDate>'.$last_date.'</pubDate>'."\n";
       echo '<guid>'.$site.'/</guid>'."\n";
       echo '</item>'."\n";
 
diff --git a/tests/php/Pages/FeedAndImageTest.php b/tests/php/Pages/FeedAndImageTest.php
index 381fca6..530b67a 100644
--- a/tests/php/Pages/FeedAndImageTest.php
+++ b/tests/php/Pages/FeedAndImageTest.php
@@ -42,6 +42,17 @@ class FeedAndImageTest extends PageTestCase {
     $this->assertSame(date('D, d M Y H:i:s O', strtotime('2021-01-03 10:00:00')), (string)$xml->channel->lastBuildDate);
   }
 
+  // Without stories, the feed dates are the time of the request
+  public function testTheFeedOfAnEmptySite(): void {
+    $this->setTables(array());
+    $xml = simplexml_load_string($this->get('/feed')['body']);
+    $this->assertNotFalse($xml);
+    $now = (string)$xml->channel->pubDate;
+    $this->assertSame($now, (string)$xml->channel->lastBuildDate);
+    $this->assertSame($now, (string)$xml->channel->item[0]->pubDate);
+    $this->assertCount(1, $xml->channel->item);
+  }
+
   public function testAnImageIsServedWithItsRealType(): void {
     $image = $this->get('/display?id=2');
     $this->assertSame(200, $image['status']);