def timeval(self, time):
        try:
            return datetime.strptime(time, self.DATE_FORMAT)
        except __HOLE__:
            # try old format
            try:
                return datetime.strptime(time, '%d %b %Y %H:%M:%S')
            except ValueError:
                # locale or other error
                return self.now()

#     # returns string
#     def get_name(self):
#         return self.name

#     # returns datetime
#     def get_mod_time(self):
#         raise RuntimeError("Method is abstract")

#     # returns datetime
#     def get_create_time(self):
#         raise RuntimeError("Method is abstract")
    
#     # returns string
#     # FIXME: perhaps this should be a User object at some point
#     def get_user(self):
#         raise RuntimeError("Method is abstract")
    
#     # returns tuple (<entity_type>, <entity_id>)
#     def get_id(self):
#         raise RuntimeError("Method is abstract")

#     # returns integer
#     def get_size(self):
#         raise RuntimeError("Method is abstract")

#     def get_description(self):
#         raise RuntimeError("Method is abstract")
    
#     # returns possibly empty list of Entity objects
#     def get_children(self):
#         raise RuntimeError("Method is abstract")

#     # returns list of strings representing paths
#     # FIXME: should this be uris for database access?
#     def get_image_fnames(self):
#         raise RuntimeError("Method is abstract")
    
    # returns boolean, True if search input is satisfied else False
dataset/ETHPy150Open VisTrails/VisTrails/vistrails/core/collection/entity.py/Entity.timeval