Is there a reason that the (Get-PACertificate).RenewAfter property is a [System.String] when the NotBefore and NotAfter are [datetime]? about posh-acme HOT 2 CLOSED

Hi @mcx808, thanks for reaching out. I think you meant Get-PAOrder rather than Get-PACertificate, right? In any case, the reason the timestamps on the order object are strings is partially ACME spec related and partially PowerShell related.

The module's order object is effectively the ACME order object with some module-specific stuff tacked onto it. All timestamps in ACME objects like the expires field on an order use the format described in RFC3339 which is an "Internet profile" of ISO 8601. This is useful because the objects are generally sent as JSON and there's no official way to represent a datetime in JSON. So when I was adding the additional timestamp properties, I wanted to stay consistent with the other fields.

Because I'm reading/writing the order objects from/to disk as JSON, it was convenient to keep them in that same RFC3339 format particularly since the PowerShell 5.1 (and earlier) JSON library doesn't try to auto-convert them to DateTime objects like the JSON library that PowerShell (Core) now uses tries to helpfully do. For example, compare the results of this code between PowerShell 5.1 and any version past 6.0.

'{"mydate":"2023-11-17T06:38:30Z"}' | ConvertFrom-Json | gm

Essentially, it comes down to wanting consistent functionality between PowerShell versions without needing to muddy up the codebase with a bunch of engine-specific code paths. I could theoretically change it in the next major version. But it sort of doesn't make sense to until I can drop PowerShell 5.1 as a supported runtime.

Also, the reason why the timestamps on the output of Get-PACertificate are actual DateTime objects is because that object is being generated directly from the certificate data and never gets written or read from disk as JSON.

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Hi @rmbolger,

I think you meant Get-PAOrder rather than Get-PACertificate, right?
Yes, sorry my mis-type there.

Thank you for the detailed explanation. Perfectly reasonable to follow the RFC for the ACME order spec, I'll bear in mind to use [datetime](Get-PAOrrder).RenewAfter for that check in my scripts. I'm glad I asked before submitting a PR to change anything.

Thanks!

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