Events and States are no longer dicts but objects.

homeassistant/util.py

@@ -1,10 +1,13 @@
 """ Helper methods for various modules. """
 
+import datetime
 import re
 
 RE_SANITIZE_FILENAME = re.compile(r"(~|(\.\.)|/|\+)")
 RE_SLUGIFY = re.compile(r'[^A-Za-z0-9_]+')
 
+DATE_STR_FORMAT = "%H:%M:%S %d-%m-%Y"
+
 
 def sanitize_filename(filename):
     """ Sanitizes a filename by removing .. / and \\. """
@@ -16,3 +19,22 @@ def slugify(text):
     text = text.strip().replace(" ", "_")
 
     return RE_SLUGIFY.sub("", text)
+
+
+def datetime_to_str(dattim):
+    """ Converts datetime to a string format.
+
+    @rtype : str
+    """
+    return dattim.strftime(DATE_STR_FORMAT)
+
+
+def str_to_datetime(dt_str):
+    """ Converts a string to a datetime object.
+
+    @rtype: datetime
+    """
+    try:
+        return datetime.datetime.strptime(dt_str, DATE_STR_FORMAT)
+    except ValueError:  # If dt_str did not match our format
+        return None