set a user time zone...

[kolonuk]

Hi all,

We have a customer in the US (-5 hours), and we would like them to run on the same server and version of progress as one of our UK customers, and also their partner. This creates problems such as the date format and the time difference issue. We solved the date format by using "SESSION: DATE_FORMAT='mmddyy'", so that US and UK dates appear different throughout the system. The next problem we have is the time, as they are 5 hours behind UK time.

Yes, the obvious is at every output of time, just add/subtract the timezone hours - but this is in hundreds of programs! I was thinking of something a little easier, like the session feature, but can't find anything, either here, the manuals, or the dreaded Progress support site.

Any one any ideas?

 

[Jupiter]

If the US Customer connects to the UK Server, you can use the following code to use the server time as follows:

ASSIGN SESSION:TIME-SOURCE = "db-name".

 

[kolonuk]

Thanks for the quick reply...

I am assuming that this uses the options used when starting a database with proserve...?

That looks like a good workaround for the US people, and we might go with that for now to appease the majority, but we also have users in their partner company in the UK logging in also (like the accounts dept. and managers etc.), and it would be ideal to have the times in the local time, which is where the "session: date_format" is very useful in setting the format for the session only, not the database...

 

[Jupiter]

CONNECT VALUE(chrDBName) -H VALUE(chrDBHost) -S VALUE(chrDBService) -N TCP NO-ERROR.
ASSIGN SESSION:TIME-SOURCE = "db-name".

The above code will ensure that only database server time is used. This is independent of the physical location of the client machine. Therefore, UK people will get UK time and US people also will get UK time assuming your database server is in UK.

If you do not use

ASSIGN SESSION:TIME-SOURCE = "db-name"

you use the "Local" time. Now you have complete flexibility.

 

[kolonuk]

Thanks for the code, and I will use that for now, but I was after US people getting US time and UK people getting UK time...

For example, a picklist was printed off at 2:00pm US time, but in UK time, this is 7:00pm. If the UK people got 2:00pm in the display, it might cause a bit of confusion...

Also, I forgot to mention, but the US people are opening another set of offices one timezone over, and they will be using the same system - this is where some sort of "SESSION" control/parameter would be VERY useful...!

===== Edited ====
Cool, thanks for that UK-US bit, but again, I am still looking for something like the last bit!