Fixed flaky data seeder test

[kevinansfield]

no issue

When seeder database timestamp strings were reparsed in non-UTC CI environments, they could shift into the future and make Faker reject inverted date ranges causing flaky CI failures. Parsing those values as UTC and guarding the date range logic keeps the data generator test stable across timezones.

What this does

• parse seeder database timestamp strings as UTC instead of local time
• guard date generation against inverted ranges when referenced records are at or after the current time
• add regression coverage for timezone parsing and date range handling

Example flaky run: https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/actions/runs/23592298819/job/68700344677?pr=26958

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

This pull request refactors date handling across multiple seeder importer files to use a centralized utility. The database-date utility module is enhanced with two new static methods: parse() for standardized date parsing and randomBetween() for generating random dates within a range. Across fifteen importer files, direct new Date() constructor calls are replaced with dateToDatabaseString.parse(), and faker.date.between() calls are replaced with dateToDatabaseString.randomBetween(). Additionally, a paging loop bug in the members-stripe-customers-subscriptions-importer is fixed, and timezone-aware test coverage is added for the new date parsing functionality.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 2 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (2 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title describes fixing a flaky data seeder test, which aligns with the PR's core objective of stabilizing timezone-dependent timestamp parsing, though it doesn't capture the technical detail that it involves UTC parsing and date range guarding.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description clearly relates to the changeset, explaining the timezone parsing issue and the solution implemented across the seeder files.

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✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch codex/fix-flaky-data-generator-test

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[sonarqubecloud]

Quality Gate passed

Issues
1 New issue
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
0.0% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud

[coderabbitai]

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)

ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-click-events-importer.js (1)

53-55: LGTM on the parse change, but note the inconsistency with other importers.

Line 53 correctly uses dateToDatabaseString.parse(). However, line 55 still uses faker.date.between() directly while other importers in this PR switched to dateToDatabaseString.randomBetween(). This may be intentional since the 15-minute window ensures a valid forward range, but consider updating for consistency.

♻️ Optional: Use randomBetween for consistency

-        const openedAt = dateToDatabaseString.parse(this.model.opened_at);
-        const laterOn = new Date(openedAt.getTime() + 1000 * 60 * 15);
-        const clickTime = faker.date.between(openedAt.getTime(), laterOn.getTime()); //added getTime here because it threw random errors
+        const openedAt = dateToDatabaseString.parse(this.model.opened_at);
+        const laterOn = new Date(openedAt.getTime() + 1000 * 60 * 15);
+        const clickTime = dateToDatabaseString.randomBetween(openedAt, laterOn);

🤖 Prompt for AI Agents

Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

In
`@ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-click-events-importer.js`
around lines 53 - 55, The code uses faker.date.between to compute clickTime
while other importers use dateToDatabaseString.randomBetween; replace the faker
call with dateToDatabaseString.randomBetween to keep behavior consistent (use
openedAt and laterOn as the range to preserve the 15-minute window), i.e.
compute clickTime via dateToDatabaseString.randomBetween(openedAt, laterOn)
instead of faker.date.between(openedAt.getTime(), laterOn.getTime()); keep
openedAt and laterOn as defined so the time window is unchanged.

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against the current code and only fix it if needed.

Nitpick comments:
In
`@ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-click-events-importer.js`:
- Around line 53-55: The code uses faker.date.between to compute clickTime while
other importers use dateToDatabaseString.randomBetween; replace the faker call
with dateToDatabaseString.randomBetween to keep behavior consistent (use
openedAt and laterOn as the range to preserve the 15-minute window), i.e.
compute clickTime via dateToDatabaseString.randomBetween(openedAt, laterOn)
instead of faker.date.between(openedAt.getTime(), laterOn.getTime()); keep
openedAt and laterOn as defined so the time window is unchanged.

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ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 29ad4bc7-ecd4-451b-be7a-373fdda1f968

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between e6fbbb8 and 554eb8a.

📒 Files selected for processing (17)

• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/comment-reports-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/comments-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/email-batches-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/email-recipients-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/emails-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-click-events-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-created-events-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-feedback-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-login-events-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-status-events-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-stripe-customers-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-stripe-customers-subscriptions-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-subscribe-events-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/members-subscription-created-events-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/importers/offer-redemptions-importer.js
• ghost/core/core/server/data/seeders/utils/database-date.js
• ghost/core/test/unit/server/data/seeders/data-generator.test.js