Re: UK BST Time Settings

Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
>> 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.
>   
Thanks for the reply. The timezone parameter is not set in 
postgresql.conf. According to the Postgres blurb 
(http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/interactive/datatype-datetime.html) 
Postgres will use the systems timezone settings which are currently BST.

Thanks

Ken

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