Applicable from

docs/getting-started/index.rst

@@ -2,3 +2,9 @@ Getting Started
 ===============
 
 Pylytics v1.0 is significantly improved from v0.7. New documentation will follow shortly.
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 2
+   :numbered:
+
+   mysql-configuration

docs/getting-started/mysql_configuration.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+MySQL Configuration
+===================
+
+Pylytics is tested against MySQL 5.5 and 5.6.
+
+If you are running MySQL 5.6, make sure the server is configured as following::
+
+    explicit_defaults_for_timestamp=OFF
+
+This is the default setting for MySQL 5.6, however some cloud providers have it set differently.

test/unit/library/test_dimension.py

@@ -95,3 +95,28 @@ def test_null_values(self, empty_warehouse, store, null_store):
         Store.insert(store)
         Store.insert(null_store)
         assert self._fetch_store_row_count() == 2
+
+
+class TestAutoTimeStamp():
+    """
+    The `applicable_from` and `created` columns in the dimension tables default
+    to the current datetime. This was implemented using triggers. These
+    tests make sure they're working properly (especially useful for running
+    these tests across multiple MySQL versions).
+
+    """
+
+    def test_success(self, empty_warehouse, store):
+        """ Just check that applicable_from == created_at.
+        """
+        Warehouse.use(empty_warehouse)
+        Store.build()
+        Store.insert(store)
+        connection = Warehouse.get()
+        with closing(connection.cursor(dictionary=True)) as cursor:
+            cursor.execute(
+                "SELECT applicable_from, created FROM %s" % Store.__tablename__
+                )
+            rows = cursor.fetchall()
+        assert rows[0]['created']
+        assert rows[0]['created'] == rows[0]['applicable_from']