modified the timestamp parsing to run faster, making a big difference when loading huge datasets

lib/couchrest/mixins/properties.rb

@@ -1,6 +1,25 @@
 require 'time'
 require File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), '..', 'more', 'property')
 
+class Time                       
+  # returns a local time value much faster than Time.parse
+  def self.mktime_with_offset(string)
+    string =~ /(\d{4})\/(\d{2})\/(\d{2}) (\d{2}):(\d{2}):(\d{2}) ([\+\-])(\d{2})/
+    # $1 = year
+    # $2 = month
+    # $3 = day
+    # $4 = hours
+    # $5 = minutes
+    # $6 = seconds
+    # $7 = time zone direction
+    # $8 = tz difference
+    # utc time with wrong TZ info: 
+    time = mktime($1, RFC2822_MONTH_NAME[$2.to_i - 1], $3, $4, $5, $6, $7)
+    tz_difference = ("#{$7 == '-' ? '+' : '-'}#{$8}".to_i * 3600)
+    time + tz_difference + zone_offset(time.zone) 
+  end 
+end
+
 module CouchRest
   module Mixins
     module Properties
@@ -24,7 +43,7 @@ module CouchRest
         self.class.properties.each do |property|
           key = property.name.to_s
           # let's make sure we have a default
-          unless property.default.nil?
+          if property.default
               if property.default.class == Proc
                 self[key] = property.default.call
               else
@@ -37,6 +56,7 @@ module CouchRest
       def cast_keys
         return unless self.class.properties
         self.class.properties.each do |property|
+          
           next unless property.casted
           key = self.has_key?(property.name) ? property.name : property.name.to_sym
           # Don't cast the property unless it has a value
@@ -53,7 +73,8 @@ module CouchRest
           else
             # Auto parse Time objects
             self[property.name] = if ((property.init_method == 'new') && target == 'Time')
-              self[key].is_a?(String) ? Time.parse(self[key].dup) : self[key]
+              # Using custom time parsing method because Ruby's default method is toooo slow 
+              self[key].is_a?(String) ? Time.mktime_with_offset(self[key].dup) : self[key]
             else
               # Let people use :send as a Time parse arg
               klass = ::CouchRest.constantize(target)
@@ -61,6 +82,7 @@ module CouchRest
             end  
             self[property.name].casted_by = self if self[property.name].respond_to?(:casted_by)
           end 
+          
         end
       end