11 replies to this topic

[bigbob2]

I have installed a contribution called Happy Hours Specials Basic.  I have posted tho question below on the forum page for that contribution, but it was last posted on in 2006, so I am trying here too as I think this question is generic regarding Time Zones.

I need to know where OsCommerce gets the time and date from generically?  I have installed the above contribution and it is not working correctly.  Int eh contribution you set a time and date for a special to be active, but I am in New Zealand, but our site is hosted in the US. I made a page for the specials to show on and in that page I put:

date_default_timezone_set( 'Pacific/Auckland' );

The specials show at the right date and time on that page using our local time, but when I add to cart, or click on the product page, (product_info.php) the special price does not show, because the time in the US is 12 hours behind ours. If I set the specials times to 12 hours out then they add to cart with the right price, but then they are out on my new page, because we are 12 hours ahead!

Please help and let me know where it gets the date from, so I can pop in my time zone.

Thanks
Kevin

[jpweber]

Are you in a different time zone from where your server is hosting your site?  If so, something like this will work:
http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,4156
If that doesn't work, you can go to (path to catalog)/includes/languages/english.php and find this line:
@setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.ISO_8859-1');

And consider changing to this:
@setlocale(LC_TIME, 'ge_GE.ISO_8859-1');

See how these things work.  Hope it helps.

[MrPhil]

Are you kidding? That sets the language and the formatting of the date and time, not the timezone itself. What would happen if you give en_US for a site in the U.S. -- which of many timezones (6 or 7, plus territories) would it use?

Try putting date_default_timezone_set( 'Pacific/Auckland' ); in application_top.php, so it kicks in on every page.

This assumes the OP is at PHP 5.1 or higher.

Edited by MrPhil, 11 December 2011 - 05:59 PM.

[bigbob2]

MrPhil, on 11 December 2011 - 05:57 PM, said:

Try putting date_default_timezone_set( 'Pacific/Auckland' ); in application_top.php, so it kicks in on every page.
This assumes the OP is at PHP 5.1 or higher.

I actually tried that already and it did not make any difference.

Any other ideas?'

Kev

[germ]

From the PHP manual you'll find a list of Australian time zones that function supports here

Maybe one of them will suit your location and actually work for you.

[MrPhil]

Don't tell a Kiwi that they're in Oz! That's like telling a Canadian that they're really an American. "Pacific/Auckland" should be a valid timezone. Is the OP on at least PHP 5.1?

[germ]

Full list of supported time zones

[germ]

If you can't adjust the time via setting the time zone you can adjust the time with the code like this.

Old code (from the contribution):

  $date = date ('Y-m-d');
  $time = date ('H:i:s');

New code:

  $my_local_time = time() - (12 * 60 * 60); // server time - 12 hours
  $date = date ('Y-m-d', $my_local_time );
  $time = date ('H:i:s', $my_local_time );

It may not be the ideal solution but it does work (I tested it).

And my sincerest apologies if I've offended anyone by erroneously thinking Aukland was part of Australia.

I haven't had a geography lesson in several decades...

[bigbob2]

Hahaha thanks guys, I will try it out.  If your help fixes this code for me, you can call me anything you like

Cheers
Kev

Edited by bigbob2, 12 December 2011 - 01:13 AM.

[bigbob2]

Jim, what page on the contribution we you referring to the following being in:


  $date = date ('Y-m-d');
  $time = date ('H:i:s');


Cheers
Kev

[germ]

The contribution I downloaded only had one page/file: happy_hours_specials_basic.php

[MrPhil]

Any place that date() is being called, you are to replace the default "time()" with a time() that has had a seconds offset added. If the U.S. server is showing 12 hours behind you, you would want to add 12 * 3600 seconds to time(), and use that time instead of the default. The actual time() is GMT (UTC), and the server configuration will add/subtract a fixed offset to get to your U.S. server's timezone and DST rules when formatting using calls such as date(). The change is to kludge this to add another 12 hours. It would be far better to set the appropriate PHP timezone, but if you're not on PHP 5.1.0 or higher it doesn't work.