CurrentDate %{+yyyy-MM-dd} not supported in input

[romlod]

When performing a SOAP call, it looks like %{+yyyy-MM-dd} for getting the currentDate in the body doesn't seem to work. I don't know whether this is expected behaviour or some sort of bug. Example below:

input {
  http_poller {
	add_field => {"[basedateSOAP]" => "%{+YYYY-MM-dd}"}
	add_field => {"[requestSOAP]" => '<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><soapenv:Header></soapenv:Header><soapenv:Body><type><Start_Date>%{[basedateSOAP]}</Start_Date><End_Date>%{[basedateSOAP]}</End_Date></type></soapenv:Body></soapenv:Envelope>'}
	urls => { 
	soap_request => {
	method => post
	url => "https:/test.com"
	headers => {
	"Content-Type" => "text/xml; charset=utf-8"
	}
	#body => '<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><soapenv:Header></soapenv:Header><soapenv:Body><type><Start_Date>%{[basedateSOAP]}</Start_Date><End_Date>%{[basedateSOAP]}</End_Date></type></soapenv:Body></soapenv:Envelope>'	
	body => "%{[requestSOAP]}"
}}   


request_timeout => 60
schedule => { cron => "* * * * * UTC"}
codec => "plain"
  }
}

[hiven]

This is driving us mad. Would love this to be fixed as it makes the product useless for our need since we use the current date as part of our body to pull the current logs.

[guyboertje]

%{+YYYY-MM-dd} is an interpolation of a date and/or time - but the important part is to know which date is used. As this interpolation is used (and was designed) for creating a text with the date/time taken from the current event (so that, for example, events can be steered to different dated indexes) it uses the @timestamp field of the current event.
Because inputs generate events there is no event and @timestamp field to use to build the interpolation when the input config is compiled.

Because of this limitation, only some settings are interpolated and which ones those are is the decision of the plugin author. That is, one can't assume that all settings are interpolated.

One could argue that the interpolation should use Time.now() if an event is not available but this would be a new piece of code (for inputs to use) because now the sprintf method is defined on the Event class.