Forum OpenACS Development: Response to How do I get the creation_user from acs_objects?

I just fixed this in cvs so that acs_object__get_attribute will work correctly with timestamps. You just need to add a cast to varchar on the selected value:

create function acs_object__get_attribute (integer,varchar)
returns varchar as '
declare
  object_id_in           alias for $1;  
  attribute_name_in      alias for $2;  
  v_table_name           varchar(200);  
  v_column               varchar(200);  
  v_key_sql              text; 
  v_return               text; 
  v_storage              text;
  v_rec                  record;
begin

   v_storage := acs_object__get_attribute_storage(object_id_in, attribute_name_in);

   v_column     := acs_object__get_attr_storage_column(v_storage);
   v_table_name := acs_object__get_attr_storage_table(v_storage);
   v_key_sql    := acs_object__get_attr_storage_sql(v_storage);

   for v_rec in execute ''select '' || quote_ident(v_column) || ''::varchar as return from '' || quote_ident(v_table_name) || '' where '' || v_key_sql
      LOOP
        v_return := v_rec.return;
        exit;
   end loop;
   if not FOUND then 
       return null;
   end if;

   return v_return;

end;' language 'plpgsql';