Ideas

Implemented: Automatically adjust for daylight saving time

  1. marky
    Member

    It would be nice if it were possible for WordPress to automatically adjust the UTC offset for daylight saving time.

    Currently, one has to adjust this value manually as soon as the time switch occurs or risk having inaccurate publish times. (This is actually quite problematic for my blog, which has a strict posting schedule.)

    I understand it's prohibitively complicated for Wordpress to keep preset options for every possible region on the planet, but a set of conditions such as "second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November" could be used. Or, at the very least, include the option only for the most popular regions.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  2. ttech5593
    Member

    This would be a good idea. Quite useful too.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  3. eleni2
    Member

    Already addressed by plugin, quite well too. Come on let's suggest things that haven't been solved by plugins. We need the developers to spend more time on things that can't be done with plugins.

    http://kimmo.suominen.com/sw/timezone/

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  4. marky
    Member

    eleni2,

    The plugin you've cited relies on the time zone of the server, requires UNIX-specific commands, permissions, and server settings, and thus doesn't work correctly on my installation.

    Please understand that just because a plugin will suffice for your situation, there's no reason to condemn suggestions for improvement. This topic's suggestion is something I would very much like to see incorporated natively into future versions.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  5. eleni2
    Member

    Should I care mr marky? We rate what WE, the users, find to be high priority for WP developers. I rate it SUPER LOW because I do not think it's high priority. We are all allowed to rate accordingly and comment accordingly.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  6. tamar
    Member

    I'm with marky here. A plugin that doesn't work on all installations should not be cited as "the" solution. eleni2, I'm disappointed in the harshness of your reply.

    Given the timezone change last night and the confusion it caused me, I think this should go on the priority list. I really just want something that knows what the server time is and acts upon that.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  7. c0y0te
    Member

    It seems a bit crazy to me that I have to manually enter in a +1 or -1 hour on the timezone settings for WP (which of course I always forget when the clocks go forward/backward). I'm also not convinced a plugin is required - this should be core functionality.

    Why not just introduce automatic time sync (via a public NTP server) and provide an option to auto-adjust time based on the date (e.g. +/- for daylight savings etc.)

    Just a thought.

    c0y0te
    http://www.avalon5.com
    "Howl @ The Moon!"

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  8. pokerpac
    Member

    i agree. this should be a simple thing. why not knock it out. every other computer time clock on the planet has adjusted for daylight savings for years.

    it's not a big enough deal to make me leave wordpress by any means ... but it's clearly an oversight that i would think they'd want to fix by 2.3

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  9. Naim
    Member

    This gets my vote. I honestly only very recently realized it /wasn't/ correcting for daylight savings time. It would be a feature of only moderate complexity to implement but would probably benefit a great number of users.

    Either NTP sync or rule-based automatic adjustment are good options, configurations based on region are far less elegant for something like this.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  10. elforesto
    Member

    Managing to keep time is basic functionality. Imagine if your OS didn't adjust your time zone automagically. Considering that a large number of bloggers use WP for commercial purposes, it becomes even more critical.

    I echo that since this is such a small thing to do, it's better to knock it out quickly than leave it hanging.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  11. epkphoto
    Member

    Another vote for this from me.

    I actually just noticed this was an issue since I only post on my blog every week or two and don't pay close attention to the post time. It surprised me that this just didn't work even though my server handles DST just fine. I have to say, though, that my surprise was short lived when I remembered all the times in the past I had to think carefully of how to implement DST as a PHP developer.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  12. sweetdeal
    Member

    eleni2,
    You were unduly harsh and borderline rude. You're right that you're entitled to your opinion, but this is a world with more people than *just you*.

    Finally, I agree that it might be a minor matter, but it's also a nice feature to have. On some installations, a plugin would work, but not all. And it becomes a tedious task when you have more than a few WP installations running in the same timezone to update.

    It may not be easy for WP to implement, however, it should be considered closely.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  13. Lorelle
    Member

    The time zone and date stamp is often confusing so I would love to see it improved. Specifically, a better drop down or Ajax suggest menu so you can enter the nearest largest city or country and then it gives you options. I can never remember how many hours off from GMT I am at any point in my travels, and who the hell knows most of the time anyway. So I have to play with it when starting a new blog, trying to figure out which one it is.

    Time changes are being rescheduled all over the world, for intelligent and stupid, greedy reasons, so making changing the time zone and time settings easier would help a majority of users, not just a few.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  14. Tr0yNT
    Member

    I think this is a good idea.

    Posted: 2 years ago #

  15. alexjohnc3
    Member

    I agree; this is a good idea.

    Posted: 1 year ago #

  16. Otto42
    Member

    I coded up a solution to this problem, but it will only work on systems running PHP 5.1 or above. Works pretty well though. You just pick your timezone and it does the rest.

    Plugin is here:
    http://ottodestruct.com/wpstuff/timezone.zip

    Posted: 1 year ago #

  17. Otto42
    Member

    Plugin is in the extend section now, and much cleaner overall. Also works on some PHP4 systems.

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/automatic-timezone/

    Posted: 1 year ago #

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