Fixing Ditto Date Output That Falls Back to `-1` in Evolution CMS

When Ditto prints -1 instead of a real date, the problem is usually not formatting. It is usually the wrong source field. Evolution CMS stores several timestamps, and Ditto will only format the one you tell it to use.

In the reported case, the fix was to point Ditto at pub_date explicitly with &dateSource=`pub_date`. Once the correct source field is used, placeholders such as [+pub_date+] and formatted date output stop collapsing into invalid values.

This matters most on migrated sites and bulk-imported content, where createdon, publishedon, and pub_date may all mean slightly different things. If the listing is meant to represent editorial publication chronology, the wrong field can quietly produce nonsense.

The lesson is simple: treat date output as data modeling, not only as formatting. Choose the real editorial date field first, then format it.