```ruby
require "pith/input"
require "time"

module Pith
  module Input

    class Abstract
      
      def published?
        false
      end
      
    end

    class Template

      def published?
        !published_at.nil?
      end
      
      def published_at
        parse_date(meta["published"])
      end

      def updated_at
        parse_date(meta["updated"]) || published_at
      end

      private

      def parse_date(date_string)
        Time.parse(date_string) if date_string
      end

    end
    
  end
end

```

Refactor again, to ease testing.
user
```ruby
require "pith/input"
require "time"

module Pith
  module Plugins
    module Publication

      module TemplateMethods

        def published?
          !published_at.nil?
        end

        def published_at
          parse_date(meta["published"])
        end

        def updated_at
          parse_date(meta["updated"]) || published_at
        end

        private

        def parse_date(date_string)
          Time.parse(date_string) if date_string
        end

      end

    end
  end
end

module Pith
  module Input

    class Abstract

      def published?
        false
      end

    end

    class Template
      include Pith::Plugins::Publication::TemplateMethods
    end
    
  end
end
```
assistant