An encrypted date field: Encryptor.Ecto.Binary over the value's ISO 8601
form (ADR-0001 decision 1).
defmodule Payments.Encrypted.Date do
use Encryptor.Ecto.Date, vault: Payments.Vault
end
defmodule Payments.Cards.Card do
use Ecto.Schema
schema "cards" do
field :merchant_id, :string
field :date_of_birth, Payments.Encrypted.Date
end
endEverything below the cast/parse pair is Encryptor.Ecto.Binary, called
rather than copied: the same closed option set, the same declared
"table"/"column" context, the same tenant resolution, the same :binary
column, the same exception family, and the vault's bytes stored verbatim.
Read that module for all of it; only the differences are documented here.
The cast/parse pair
cast/2 is Ecto.Type.cast(:date, value) - Ecto's own caster, so a
Date.t/0, an ISO 8601 string, and the %{"year" => _, "month" => _, "day" => _} map a form sends all cast exactly as they would on a plain
:date column. The plaintext is Date.to_iso8601/1 and a load parses it
with Date.from_iso8601/1, accepting a calendar date and nothing else.
The textual form is not a choice taken here. Cloak.Ecto.Date writes the
same bytes: cloak_ecto 1.3.0 serializes every scalar with to_string/1,
which for a Date is byte-identical to Date.to_iso8601/1 on the ISO
calendar. ADR-0004's migration hands the migrator a legacy plaintext and
re-encrypts it verbatim below the schema
layer (ADR-0002 decision 3), so a column arriving from Cloak.Ecto.Date is
readable through this type because the two agree about what the bytes say.
The two datetime types are the exception - see
Encryptor.Ecto.NaiveDateTime - and every kind's exact bytes are pinned in
test/encryptor/ecto/scalar_types_test.exs.
A payload that decrypts and then does not parse raises
Encryptor.Ecto.SerializationError with {:unparsable, :date}: the decrypt
succeeded, so it is neither an encryption failure nor an integrity event,
which is the row ADR-0001 decision 6 gives that exception. A value that
reaches dump/3 without passing cast/2 - through insert_all/3, say -
raises ArgumentError naming the shape it was given and never the value.
Everything else
nil is NULL and is not encrypted (decision 7). The column is :binary,
not :date - type/1 returns :binary whatever the plaintext was (decision
2), so the database applies no date validation of its own and the migration
writes :binary here as it does for Binary. Encrypted columns are not
queryable, sortable or uniquely indexable (decision 10), and a date is where
that costs the most: where: c.date_of_birth < ^cutoff does not mean what it
would on a plain column, and an age filter is a host-side pass over decrypted
rows or a redesign, not an index.
Summary
Functions
Defines an encrypted date type on the using module.
Casts a value on its way into a changeset. Never encrypts.
Checks a declaration's option set while the declaring module compiles.
Types
@type opts() :: Encryptor.Ecto.Binary.opts()
The options use Encryptor.Ecto.Date accepts.
Identical to Encryptor.Ecto.Binary's: this type adds no option and removes
none, and :json belongs to Encryptor.Ecto.Map alone (decision 3).
Functions
Defines an encrypted date type on the using module.
See Encryptor.Ecto.Binary for the option set; anything outside it raises
here, while the host module is compiling.
Casts a value on its way into a changeset. Never encrypts.
iex> Encryptor.Ecto.Date.cast(~D[2026-09-12], %{})
{:ok, ~D[2026-09-12]}
iex> Encryptor.Ecto.Date.cast("2026-09-12", %{})
{:ok, ~D[2026-09-12]}
iex> Encryptor.Ecto.Date.cast(nil, %{})
{:ok, nil}
iex> Encryptor.Ecto.Date.cast("12/09/2026", %{})
:error
Checks a declaration's option set while the declaring module compiles.
iex> Encryptor.Ecto.Date.validate_declaration!(Payments.Encrypted.Date,
...> vault: Payments.Vault
...> )
[vault: Payments.Vault]