Yii2, how do I insert the current time into a date time field using yii/db/Migration?

Question

I'm using the Yii 2 framework and I am creating a migration file. In this migration I am trying to insert a record into a table using

$this->insert('table_name', ['column_name'=> time]); 

The column name I'm trying to update without success is the created_at and updated_at fields that are currently the type of datetime with null set to Yes. I could just set the default attribute of the column to current timestamp. However I am not the one that created the database and am reluctant on modifying the table scheme. I have tried many different ways to set the datetime field to the current datetime with no luck. Attached are two screenshots of the current code I have and the current table scheme.

Apologize in advance for the newb question. Any help would be greatly appreciated, please and thank you.

Answer 1

Are you sure you want to store dates in this format? Usually UNIX timestamp is much more flexible.

Anyway you can use plain PHP method like:

'created_at' => date('Y-m-d H:i:s'),

or expression:

'created_at' => new \yii\db\Expression('NOW()'),