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[HTTP & Networking](/categories/http) 4. / 5. ctw/ctw-middleware-generatedat ActiveLibrary[HTTP & Networking](/categories/http) ctw/ctw-middleware-generatedat ============================== This PSR-15 middleware adds an X-Generated-At timestamp to the Response header. 4.0.4(5mo ago)119BSD-3-ClausePHPPHP ^8.3CI passing Since Mar 13Pushed 5mo ago1 watchersCompare [ Source](https://github.com/jonathanmaron/ctw-middleware-generatedat)[ Packagist](https://packagist.org/packages/ctw/ctw-middleware-generatedat)[ RSS](/packages/ctw-ctw-middleware-generatedat/feed)WikiDiscussions master Synced 1mo ago READMEChangelogDependencies (5)Versions (32)Used By (0) Package "ctw/ctw-middleware-generatedat" ======================================== [](#package-ctwctw-middleware-generatedat) [![Latest Stable Version](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/3bb5d73709cb45c949b309d7c4f2b6f9138e8d8b859ce0d3fd459717c61e2eaa/68747470733a2f2f706f7365722e707567782e6f72672f6374772f6374772d6d6964646c65776172652d67656e65726174656461742f762f737461626c65)](https://packagist.org/packages/ctw/ctw-middleware-generatedat)[![GitHub Actions](https://github.com/jonathanmaron/ctw-middleware-generatedat/actions/workflows/tests.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/jonathanmaron/ctw-middleware-generatedat/actions/workflows/tests.yml)[![Scrutinizer Build](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/02352d9236e7b542f765487c434f6d8970ce80f9593374fcdd22880d62bd506f/68747470733a2f2f7363727574696e697a65722d63692e636f6d2f672f6a6f6e617468616e6d61726f6e2f6374772d6d6964646c65776172652d67656e65726174656461742f6261646765732f6275696c642e706e673f623d6d6173746572)](https://scrutinizer-ci.com/g/jonathanmaron/ctw-middleware-generatedat/build-status/master)[![Scrutinizer Quality](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/4f52376d8b5ec03408040b058454cd81a34189ed8068d3e75f600ebcbf228882/68747470733a2f2f7363727574696e697a65722d63692e636f6d2f672f6a6f6e617468616e6d61726f6e2f6374772d6d6964646c65776172652d67656e65726174656461742f6261646765732f7175616c6974792d73636f72652e706e673f623d6d6173746572)](https://scrutinizer-ci.com/g/jonathanmaron/ctw-middleware-generatedat/?branch=master)[![Code Coverage](https://camo.githubusercontent.com/cdd9a98f32fcffa5996395386a265508934c7e1ebe7ce04b312fd28351fd9ad9/68747470733a2f2f7363727574696e697a65722d63692e636f6d2f672f6a6f6e617468616e6d61726f6e2f6374772d6d6964646c65776172652d67656e65726174656461742f6261646765732f636f7665726167652e706e673f623d6d6173746572)](https://scrutinizer-ci.com/g/jonathanmaron/ctw-middleware-generatedat/?branch=master) PSR-15 middleware that adds an `X-Generated-At` header with an ISO 8601 UTC timestamp to every response. Introduction ------------ [](#introduction) ### Why This Library Exists [](#why-this-library-exists) Knowing when a response was generated is valuable for debugging, monitoring, and cache validation. While HTTP provides standard caching headers like `Date` and `Last-Modified`, these are often set by web servers or proxies rather than the application itself. The `X-Generated-At` header provides an application-level timestamp indicating exactly when your PHP code generated the response: - **Debugging**: Quickly identify if you're seeing a cached response or a freshly generated one - **Performance monitoring**: Compare generation timestamps with response receipt times - **Cache verification**: Confirm that CDN or browser caches are serving expected content - **Audit trails**: Log when specific responses were generated for compliance purposes ### Problems This Library Solves [](#problems-this-library-solves) 1. **Cache ambiguity**: Difficult to determine if a response came from cache or was freshly generated 2. **Timezone confusion**: Server timestamps may use local time; this middleware uses consistent UTC format 3. **Missing application timestamps**: Web server `Date` headers don't reflect when application code executed 4. **Debugging complexity**: Without timestamps, correlating logs with responses requires additional tooling 5. **Inconsistent formatting**: Custom timestamp implementations vary; this provides ISO 8601 standard format ### Where to Use This Library [](#where-to-use-this-library) - **Development environments**: Verify that code changes are being reflected in responses - **Production applications**: Monitor response freshness and debug caching issues - **API services**: Provide clients with precise response generation timestamps - **Multi-tier architectures**: Distinguish between application, CDN, and proxy caching - **Debugging sessions**: Correlate browser responses with server-side logs ### Design Goals [](#design-goals) 1. **ISO 8601 format**: Uses standard `Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z` format for universal parsing 2. **UTC timezone**: Eliminates timezone ambiguity with consistent UTC timestamps 3. **Request-based accuracy**: Uses `REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT` for precise timing 4. **Minimal overhead**: Simple header addition with negligible performance impact 5. **Non-intrusive**: Adds metadata without modifying response content Requirements ------------ [](#requirements) - PHP 8.3 or higher - ctw/ctw-middleware ^4.0 Installation ------------ [](#installation) Install by adding the package as a [Composer](https://getcomposer.org) requirement: ``` composer require ctw/ctw-middleware-generatedat ``` Usage Examples -------------- [](#usage-examples) ### Basic Pipeline Registration (Mezzio) [](#basic-pipeline-registration-mezzio) ``` use Ctw\Middleware\GeneratedAtMiddleware\GeneratedAtMiddleware; // In config/pipeline.php or similar $app->pipe(GeneratedAtMiddleware::class); ``` ### Response Header Output [](#response-header-output) ``` HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 X-Generated-At: 2024-01-15T14:30:45Z ``` ### Inspecting with cURL [](#inspecting-with-curl) ``` curl -I https://example.com/ # Response includes: # X-Generated-At: 2024-01-15T14:30:45Z ``` ### Inspecting in Browser DevTools [](#inspecting-in-browser-devtools) 1. Open Developer Tools (F12) 2. Navigate to the Network tab 3. Select a request 4. View Response Headers 5. Look for `X-Generated-At` ### ConfigProvider Registration [](#configprovider-registration) The package includes a `ConfigProvider` for automatic factory registration: ``` // config/config.php return [ // ... \Ctw\Middleware\GeneratedAtMiddleware\ConfigProvider::class, ]; ``` ### Header Format [](#header-format) ComponentValueDescriptionHeader name`X-Generated-At`Custom header indicating generation timeFormatISO 8601`Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z`TimezoneUTCIndicated by `Z` suffixExample`2024-01-15T14:30:45Z`January 15, 2024 at 14:30:45 UTC ### Health Score 45 — FairBetter than 92% of packages Maintenance70 Regular maintenance activity Popularity8 Limited adoption so far Community7 Small or concentrated contributor base Maturity79 Established project with proven stability Bus Factor1 Top contributor holds 100% of commits — single point of failure How is this calculated?**Maintenance (25%)** — Last commit recency, latest release date, and issue-to-star ratio. Uses a 2-year decay window. **Popularity (30%)** — Total and monthly downloads, GitHub stars, and forks. Logarithmic scaling prevents top-heavy scores. **Community (15%)** — Contributors, dependents, forks, watchers, and maintainers. Measures real ecosystem engagement. **Maturity (30%)** — Project age, version count, PHP version support, and release stability. ### Release Activity Cadence Every ~57 days Recently: every ~131 days Total 31 Last Release 168d ago Major Versions 1.0.1 → 2.0.02022-02-14 2.0.0 → 3.0.02022-07-07 3.0.22 → 4.0.02024-06-18 PHP version history (4 changes)1.0.0PHP ^7.4 || ^8.0 3.0.0PHP ^8.0 3.0.9PHP ^8.1 4.0.0PHP ^8.3 ### Community Maintainers ![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/18d8bc9bdee8ab1b0cfccce6a06d2438acbed3a58b0046c4834c5678f6769342?d=identicon)[jonathanmaron](/maintainers/jonathanmaron) --- Top Contributors [![jonathanmaron](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/298462?v=4)](https://github.com/jonathanmaron "jonathanmaron (56 commits)") ### Code Quality TestsPHPUnit ### Embed Badge ![Health badge](/badges/ctw-ctw-middleware-generatedat/health.svg) ``` [![Health](https://phpackages.com/badges/ctw-ctw-middleware-generatedat/health.svg)](https://phpackages.com/packages/ctw-ctw-middleware-generatedat) ``` ### Alternatives [nelmio/api-doc-bundle Generates documentation for your REST API from attributes 2.3k63.6M233](/packages/nelmio-api-doc-bundle)[api-platform/core Build a fully-featured hypermedia or GraphQL API in minutes! 2.6k48.1M236](/packages/api-platform-core)[api-platform/state API Platform state interfaces 223.4M57](/packages/api-platform-state)[akrabat/ip-address-middleware PSR-15 middleware that determines the client IP address and stores it as a ServerRequest attribute 1702.5M18](/packages/akrabat-ip-address-middleware)[mezzio/mezzio-authentication-oauth2 OAuth2 (server) authentication middleware for Mezzio and PSR-7 applications. 28483.0k2](/packages/mezzio-mezzio-authentication-oauth2)[mezzio/mezzio-authentication Authentication middleware for Mezzio and PSR-7 applications 121.6M26](/packages/mezzio-mezzio-authentication) PHPackages © 2026 [Directory](/)[Categories](/categories)[Trending](/trending)[Changelog](/changelog)[Analyze](/analyze)