Where is the special_price/special_to_date/special_from_date held at?

Question

I have a query for the catalog/product model and that has an associated properties of special price field, I can access them normally by using the model, however when using getSelect() it will only get me the table catalog_product_entity, which does not contain what I need.

Here is what I am using:

$products = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/product_collection')
        ->getSelect()
        ->where(
            " ( special_from_date > '$todayDate' OR  special_to_date < '$todayDate' )
             OR  ( special_from_date IS NULL AND special_to_date IS NULL ) ");
        ->query();

As you might expect this will return the column not found error.

Oh and if you are wondering, why don't I just use filters? The issue is that Its very ugly to create a filter with the combination (V OR V) OR (V AND V)

Answer 1

Try it like this:

$todayStartOfDayDate  = Mage::app()->getLocale()->date()
            ->setTime('00:00:00')
            ->toString(Varien_Date::DATETIME_INTERNAL_FORMAT);

$todayEndOfDayDate  = Mage::app()->getLocale()->date()
            ->setTime('23:59:59')
            ->toString(Varien_Date::DATETIME_INTERNAL_FORMAT);

$products = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/product_collection')
    ->addAttributeToSelect(array('special_price', 'special_to_date', 'special_from_date'))
    ->addAttributeToFilter(
         'special_from_date', 
          array(
              'or'=> array(
                  0 => array(
                      'date' => true, 
                      'to' => $todayEndOfDayDate
                  ),
                  1 => array(
                      'is' => new Zend_Db_Expr('null')
                  )
               )
          ), 
          'left'
     )
    ->addAttributeToFilter(
        'special_to_date', 
        array(
            'or'=> array(
                0 => array(
                    'date' => true, 
                    'from' => $todayStartOfDayDate
                ),
                1 => array(
                     'is' => new Zend_Db_Expr('null')
                )
            )
        ), 
        'left'
    )
    ->addAttributeToFilter(
         array(
              array(
                   'attribute' => 'special_from_date', 
                   'is'=>new Zend_Db_Expr('not null')
              ),
              array(
                   'attribute' => 'special_to_date', 
                   'is'=>new Zend_Db_Expr('not null')
              )
         )
    );

This should get you the list of products that have a valid special price today. I assume that's what you want.

Answer 2

This is the code I derivated from @Marius 's answer

$products = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/product_collection')
        ->addAttributeToFilter(
            array(
                array(
                    'attribute' =>'special_from_date',
                    'date' => true,
                    'gt' => $todayDate
                    ),
                array(
                    'attribute' =>'special_to_date',
                    'date' => true,
                    'lt' => $todayDate
                    ),
                'or' => array(
                        'attribute' =>'special_from_date',
                        'date' => true,
                        'null' => true,
                        'and' => array(
                        'attribute' =>'special_to_date',
                        'date' => true,
                        'null' => true
                        )
                    )
                )
            );

And it works !