Webmaster forum - Time Zones Usage

Author

Time Zones Usage

Worldcommander

2006-08-21, 6:52 pm

Hello,

I have a web app with a few hundred admin users throughout the US.
These users provide content to readers worldwide, but the information
is mostly targeted to users in the US. All content is time sensitive
down to the minute and a time stamp is displayed to our customers.

I felt the need to use a single time zone as opposed to Greenwich Mean
Time. The thought was that GMT as a display would be no more useful,
and potentially more confusing to many of our customers. I
standardized on the Eastern Time Zone (ET) for two reasons. One, that's
where the server is and two, because a small survey showed that more
people knew what time it was in the ET zone relative to their time zone
than any other time zone.

The problem is that everyone (customers) wants to see their time zone
displayed on my timestamps. I can't accurately determine an end users
time zone, so that's not really an option. However, some admin users
have asked that I provide them the option of selecting the time zone
for display. This would result in the display of many time zones on my
pages. My thought is that this would be more confusing as customers
would need to convert multiple time zones for each piece of data.

Is there a right/wrong way of handling the time stamp display of dated
material?

Karl Groves

2006-08-21, 6:52 pm

"Worldcommander" <worldcommander@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in
news:1156189309.917352.189700@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

> Hello,
>
> I have a web app with a few hundred admin users throughout the US.
> These users provide content to readers worldwide, but the information
> is mostly targeted to users in the US. All content is time sensitive
> down to the minute and a time stamp is displayed to our customers.
>
> I felt the need to use a single time zone as opposed to Greenwich Mean
> Time. The thought was that GMT as a display would be no more useful,
> and potentially more confusing to many of our customers. I
> standardized on the Eastern Time Zone (ET) for two reasons. One, that's
> where the server is and two, because a small survey showed that more
> people knew what time it was in the ET zone relative to their time zone
> than any other time zone.
>
> The problem is that everyone (customers) wants to see their time zone
> displayed on my timestamps. I can't accurately determine an end users
> time zone, so that's not really an option. However, some admin users
> have asked that I provide them the option of selecting the time zone
> for display. This would result in the display of many time zones on my
> pages. My thought is that this would be more confusing as customers
> would need to convert multiple time zones for each piece of data.
>
> Is there a right/wrong way of handling the time stamp display of dated
> material?
>

Post the item with a unix timestamp
Store the user's preferred timezone.
When you display the item, reformat the timestamp so it shows time based on
what time it was for the user.

--
Karl Groves
www.karlcore.com

William Tasso

2006-08-21, 6:52 pm

Fleeing from the madness of the http://groups.google.com jungle
Worldcommander <worldcommander@XXXXXXXXXX> stumbled into
news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:

> Hello,

How do you do?

> I have a web app with a few hundred admin users throughout the US.

Too many brothels spoil the cook.

> ...
> The problem is that everyone (customers) wants to see their time zone
> displayed on my timestamps. I can't accurately determine an end users
> time zone, so that's not really an option.

You could ask them?

> However, some admin users
> have asked that I provide them the option of selecting the time zone
> for display. This would result in the display of many time zones on my
> pages.

aye - too many, would dilute your content too.

> My thought is that this would be more confusing as customers
> would need to convert multiple time zones for each piece of data.

well - they'd probably only convert one and the remainder would be
superfluous.

> Is there a right/wrong way of handling the time stamp display of dated
> material?

if the users /must/ login to access content then go with Karl's suggestion
and store it in a db - guess it wouldn't hurt to use a cookie - should be
ok except for highly mobile users. Otherwise, give the visitor a clickety
click at each visit - a simple dropdown would do - and store the offset in
a session variable.

--
William Tasso

http://williamtasso.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp

George L. Sexton

2006-08-22, 3:37 am

On Mon, 21 Aug 2006 12:41:49 -0700, Worldcommander wrote:

> The problem is that everyone (customers) wants to see their time zone
> displayed on my timestamps. I can't accurately determine an end users

Give the users a page that lets them set their time zone as a cookie.
Modify the page to convert it to the time zone specified by the cookie if
its present.

--
George Sexton
MH Software, Inc. - Home of Connect Daily Web Calendar
http://www.mhsoftware.com/connectdaily.htm

Worldcommander

2006-08-22, 3:37 am

Karl Groves wrote:
> "Worldcommander" <worldcommander@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in
> news:1156189309.917352.189700@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:
>
>
>
> Post the item with a unix timestamp
> Store the user's preferred timezone.
> When you display the item, reformat the timestamp so it shows time based on
> what time it was for the user.
>
>
>
> --
> Karl Groves
> www.karlcore.com

Thanks Karl (and William) -

Sorry for not including the problems with obvious solutions. I am
unfortunately unable to store user the preferences customers. This is
a government web site and we are prohibited from storing any end-user
information in a database, using cookies to identify users. If I
offered the ability to set a time zone preference, it would only be
valid for that session.

My question isn't really how to do it. I'm more curious what other
people think makes more sense. Do I continue to standardize on one
time zone, or do grant my admin folks the ability to set a preferred
time zone? The end result would be affect the display of my data as
timestamps would either be all in one time zone, or multiple time zones.

Karl Groves

2006-08-22, 3:37 am

"Worldcommander" <worldcommander@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in
news:1156207560.646542.289890@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

> Karl Groves wrote:
>
> Thanks Karl (and William) -
>
> Sorry for not including the problems with obvious solutions. I am
> unfortunately unable to store user the preferences customers. This is
> a government web site and we are prohibited from storing any end-user
> information in a database, using cookies to identify users. If I
> offered the ability to set a time zone preference, it would only be
> valid for that session.
>
> My question isn't really how to do it. I'm more curious what other
> people think makes more sense. Do I continue to standardize on one
> time zone, or do grant my admin folks the ability to set a preferred
> time zone? The end result would be affect the display of my data as
> timestamps would either be all in one time zone, or multiple time
> zones.
>

How about this.
Store the data in a unix timestamp, then use a geoip type thing to
"guess" their time zone and adjust accordingly. Not exactly 100%
reliable, but close enough for government work. ;-)

--
Karl Groves
www.karlcore.com

Worldcommander

2006-08-22, 3:37 am

Karl Groves wrote:
> "Worldcommander" <worldcommander@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in
> news:1156207560.646542.289890@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
>
>
>
> How about this.
> Store the data in a unix timestamp, then use a geoip type thing to
> "guess" their time zone and adjust accordingly. Not exactly 100%
> reliable, but close enough for government work. ;-)
>
>
>
> --
> Karl Groves
> www.karlcore.com

Trust me, I gave something similar some serious thought. :)

Thanks

Sfj

2006-08-22, 3:37 am

>> > The problem is that everyone (customers) wants to see their time zone
>
> Thanks Karl (and William) -
>
> Sorry for not including the problems with obvious solutions. I am
> unfortunately unable to store user the preferences customers. This is
> a government web site and we are prohibited from storing any end-user
> information in a database, using cookies to identify users. If I
> offered the ability to set a time zone preference, it would only be
> valid for that session.
>
> My question isn't really how to do it. I'm more curious what other
> people think makes more sense. Do I continue to standardize on one
> time zone, or do grant my admin folks the ability to set a preferred
> time zone? The end result would be affect the display of my data as
> timestamps would either be all in one time zone, or multiple time zones.

You really have some restrictions on a simple task. I wish our IT
department were as concerned about getting our time zones synched. Some of
our reports are local time, some are military time, and some are corporate
server time. We just have to "deal" with it. I guess I'm used to it now,
just takes a little practice.

In your case, I would settle on one time zone. I think it reduces
confusion. Just put a big ugly warning sign that says "All times are
Eastern." Someone might disagree, but that is just my opinion (without
looking at your screen designs or knowing what your data is about). It is
great policy to accommodate "everyone" but I have seen this lead to some
ridiculous globs of goo. Good luck with your project.

Sherman

http://cheetahpolls.com?ID=20060822

CJM

2006-08-22, 6:38 am

A convoluted option would be to store the timestamp in EST (same as your
server). The when it comes to displaying it to your users, you can compare
the current server time with the current users time, work out the offset,
then apply it to the stored times when they are displayed.

A little messy, but it would achieve what you want under the listed
constraints.

CJM