The timestamp received from the server looks like this: "2022-12-21 16:47:10"
This timestamp represents a date and time without any information about the time zone or offset. It is not possible to determine that it originated from Poland based on this data alone.
To address this issue, one solution would be to modify the server-side code in one of the following ways:
Output the time in UTC format. For example: "2022-12-21T15:47:10Z"
. This is often the preferred choice, especially if the timestamps are not associated with a specific local time zone.
Output the time in local time with the corresponding time zone offset. If the value does come from Poland, then the server should output
"2022-12-21T16:47:10+01:00"
since Poland is one hour ahead of UTC at that particular date and time.
Output the time in local time along with a separate field specifying the time zone identifier. For instance:
{
"datetime" : "2022-12-21T16:47:10",
"timezone" : "Europe/Warsaw"
}
It's important to note that this approach may introduce ambiguities during transitions such as the end of daylight saving time.
Combine both previous options to eliminate ambiguities:
{
"datetime" : "2022-12-21T16:47:10+01:00",
"timezone" : "Europe/Warsaw"
}
This comprehensive format is typically necessary for scheduling future events.
For more details on when to use these options, you can refer to DateTime vs DateTimeOffset, which was originally written for .NET but has relevance here as well.
Regarding client-side JavaScript implementations, in the case of the first two options, you can directly feed the inputs into the Date
object constructor and utilize methods like toString
or toLocaleString
. These methods can also be used for the datetime
part of the fourth option.
However, for the third option, employing a library such as Luxon is necessary to handle input time zone identifiers since the Date
object currently does not support them. (The timeZone
option in
toLocaleString</code is only for output purposes.)</p>
<p>For instance:</p>
<p><div>
<div>
<pre class="lang-js"><code>const dt1 = luxon.DateTime.fromISO("2022-12-21T16:47:10", {zone: "Europe/Warsaw"});
const dt2 = dt1.toLocal();
console.log(dt2.toString());
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/luxon/3.1.1/luxon.min.js"></script>