Re: UK BST Time Settings

> SUMMARY OF SITUATION
> The configuration is OGo accessed via browser and via Outlook/Zidelook. 
> After the change from GMT to BST in the UK appointments as viewed in 
> Outlook appear one hour late.
> DATA
> The server is FC6, operating in London/Europe time zone. OGo has GMT as 
> its time zone in the Defaults.
> Content of the database
> Here is an extract from the database for a repeating appointment
> OGo=> select date_id, start_date, start_date AT TIME ZONE 'GMT', 
> end_date, end_date AT TIME ZONE 'GMT' from date_x where title = 'Ken in 
> office' order by start_date;
>  date_id |       start_date       |      timezone       |        
> end_date        |      timezone
> ---------+------------------------+---------------------+------------------------+---------------------
>    78992 | 2008-11-13 10:30:00+00 | 2008-11-13 10:30:00 | 2008-11-13 
> 12:30:00+00 | 2008-11-13 12:30:00
> In the OGo web interface, all of these show as starting at 10:30
> In Sunbird (I don't have a Zidelook licence in my test setup) these 
> appointments show as follows:-
> 2008-11-13 10:30
> MY ANALYSIS
> It would appear that Postgres is correctly taking account of the 
> machines own time zone.

Do you have -
timezone = GMT
- in your PostgreSQL config (ex: /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf)?
AFAIK this is the default on most installations/distributions.  If not
add that and try some modifications/creates and see what happens.

> The data in /usr/local/share/libFoundation/TimeZoneInfo/GMT has a 
> constant time offset (0:00) all through the year. The OGo web interface 
> is using this. This would work acceptably if no-one in another time zone 
> used the WebUI or Outlook/Zidelook or Sunbird...

I believe more than just the WebUI uses that;  as ZideStore, if provided
a timezone in an iCal, will [I believe] attempt to adjust the start/end
attributes accordingly.

> There is an entry /usr/local/share/libFoundation/TimeZoneInfo/GB-Eire 
> which appears to have good data in it, but 
> /usr/local/share/libFoundation/RegionsDictionary does not have an entry 
> that invokes that data.
> POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
> (1) Correct the data in the database by subtracting an hour from the 
> entries for the BST part of the year. Manually set OGo webui to GMT+1 
> during the BST part of the year.

I'd try fixing the DB, changing PostgreSQL to GMT (if it isn't already)
and see what happens.  Is PostgreSQL not GMT by default on Fedora?  If
so that deserves a red-alert-box in WMOGAG.

> (2) Correct the data as in (1) and create a new time zone in the OGo 
> WebUI that follows the GMT/BST switch in the UK.

Why not just fix the current timezone definition?

> EXPERIMENT
> It seems wrong that we in the UK call the time in one part of our year 
> GMT and the other BST. Whereas, for example, EST is the name for the 
> whole of the year in the US eastern zone.

No, in the US it is EST & EDT;  which OGo supports.  It switches back
and forth.  

<rant>
The basic fact is that timezones are ****STUPID**** and arbitrary.  I
admire China for just saying that the whole country is one time-zone
end-to-end;  the &^@%*&$* wall clock time is just a number, that solar
noon = 12 is just an annoying anachronism (and not accurate anyway since
it rarely corresponds to the suns highest point anyway).  If the sun
rises when my clock says 7, 10, or 14... what does it matter?  I'll
obviously know when it rises.  The whole planet should just switch to
GMT... but then we can't even get the whole planet to switch to metric.
How many feet in a mile?  I live in the non-metric USA and I don't know
[or even care].
</rant>

> Taking suggestions from 
> http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1978, I have 
> added a time zone called GBT to libFoundation that invokes the GB-Eire 
> data and I have changed the Defaults in OGo on my test system to use this.
> I notice in 
> http://bugzilla.opengroupware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1270 what 
> seems to be a Default called ListTimeZones is mentioned. Can this be 
> used to configure the time zones that appear in the WebUI? I don't see 
> that parameter on my system or in WMOGAG. Is this a potential solution 
> that would make the timezone GBT appear as a choice in the WebUI and 
> allow solution (2) to be deployed or is there a better way to do this?

I'll poke around and get back to you on that;  I've been meaning to
flesh out the TZ section of WMOGAG anyways.
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