idea Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online in ArcGIS Online Ideas

Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

MattKennedy — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:21:47 GMT

Is it possible for ArcGIS Online to have an option to display date fields using local time instead of UTC time? It is fine to store the dates in UTC, but it would be helpful if dates/times could be displayed in local time. Perhaps AGOL organizations could have a time zone setting that organization administrators could opt to set. This would be especially helpful for users/organizations that don't have cross-time zone issues to face, and want to see times and dates in the only time zone they ever work in. Thanks.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

NCDPWField_Operator — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 23:54:41 GMT

This option would be extremely helpful. Our organization is working at the county level to map Superstorm Sandy debris removal locations and will be using Arc Online to push information to FEMA. Currently, we are fielding questions with regard to the date field (in the popup window) as some of the availalable paper back-up does not match. Please add an option to set a time zone - this would greatly improve the credibility and accuracy of our web map. Thank you.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

KellyGerrow — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 04:45:44 GMT

If you enable time on the layer before publishing, it will apply the UTC offset to your local time.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

ToddWilson — Fri, 09 May 2014 13:18:00 GMT

I agree on the option to not use UTC Time offset in ArcGIS Online. Dates should not be manipulated through another web app. What stored in the field is what should show. Fortunately, I was able to use the time tab and set my dates to UTC Eastern Time in the mxd to fix this ArcGIS online issue. But what if you have more than two date fields in your featureclass?

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

KevinRathgeber — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 22:23:28 GMT

We too at the City of Saskatoon agree on this. Silverlight and ArcGIS Online converting to a UTC value causes the data to be saved as the UTC time and not our local time. With all our other systems defaulting to our local time knowing when certain data is saved in UTC and when certain data is hard to keep track of. This is extremely problematic when apps like ArcMap which connect directly to the database are reading the raw dates which are now off by how ever many hours different your timezone is. We find we are having to constantly create spatial views for things like ArcMap to handle easily because having our users weed through a list of what dates are UTC or not simply does not work.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

deleted-user-zGZcJ5TpRUeA — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:19:55 GMT

City of Toledo has ArcServer and all dates are converted once published. We were hoping to use AGO for our Leaf Collection schedule but this conversion is causing a problem since I can't format the date/timezone in AGO popups. We will have to use Flex or JavaScript instead where we can specify the date format.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

CharlieYe1 — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 16:26:21 GMT

We, at The City of Calagary, agree on this too. AGO needs to be have a way to display time in Local Time.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

WilliamRice — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 18:09:23 GMT

Viewing the time in a Local Time Zone would be very helpful especially when trying to present time related data to non GIS users.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

BradyHoak — Tue, 12 May 2015 12:34:21 GMT

There should be a checkbox on the ArcGIS online layer not to perform a UTC conversion if the UTC time zone was not specified (as is an option when publishing from desktop, which resolves the issue entirely at 10.3). In general, the benefit gained from an automatic UTC conversion on none time zoned designated layers is not worth the confusion this causes most users. This would take care of the vast majority who normally collect data in one timezone, and where the intended audience is viewing from that zone as well.

In fact, it could be argued that this should be the default behavior (no conversion to UTC). Thus, there would be a checkbox option if one WANTS the server to change it to UTC time (which is the current default).

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

MichaelPotter1 — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 19:39:45 GMT

Are you (bradyhoak) saying that there is an option in Desktop 10.3 that resolves this issue or are you saying that there should be an option? If this option does exist, where is it?

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

KellyGerrow — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 20:24:23 GMT

To enable a timezone on one or two fields when publishing the data to ArcGIS Online, follow this documentation before publishing your map document: http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/desktop/latest/map/time/enabling-time-on-your-data.htm, http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/desktop/latest/map/time/why-set-a-temporal-reference.htm

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

DavidCarpenter — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 18:00:10 GMT

We just discovered this issue and it definately is a problem for us as well in terms of how we are using the viewers (which are great); I don't think its is fair to suggest that one should have to enable time on every service just to have it display a date / time accurately in an AGOL Viewer popup or attribute table. I agree with Bradyhoak and others that there should be a simple checkbox in configure attributes to either use a UTC shift or not. If unchecked the date / time would be displayed as it exists in the database and service your web map.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

KellyGerrow — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 01:09:31 GMT

New functionality was added in the March Release to specify the timezone of your date and time data when publishing feature services from a CSV:http://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/share-maps/publish-features.htm#GUID-DD47C642-38B4-4645-801D-2866FE90BF73

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

DavidCarpenter — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 16:40:51 GMT

One more comment from me, since I am struggling with this again as I write this. I have time enabled the data in the MXD I am using for my service to resolve the UTC issue. Unfortunately my data has more than one date/time field that I need visible to the user in a pop-up (AGOL webmap). Only the date/time field that is specified in the Time settings for each layer appears as it does in the data, the other date/time fields are displayed incorrectly in UTC. This is obviously not good 🙂

Please address this issue ASAP, Brady Hoak' comment above would be ideal if its the easiest fix. Allow the user in the web map to decide how date/time is handled for each layer and possibly at the feature layer level if the service is added to AGOL as an item.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

RogerYoung1 — Mon, 08 May 2017 14:04:55 GMT

I have found that all of the dates within services or shape files are one day earlier than in the layers once I upload them to AGOL. What I am mapping is fire department responses to fires, so there is an alarm time and date, an arrival time and date, a controlled time and date and a last unit cleared time and date. The solution involving setting the time zone in Desktop works perfectly on one field but doesn't correct the other three. Unfortunately we have to have all of the dates because and alarm could come in just before midnight so it would be one date for the alarm and another for arrival. The same goes for the controlled and cleared fields. The work around I came up with was to add extra fields and then use the calculation tool to add a day.This idea would make my life a lot easier.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

Anonymous User — Mon, 22 May 2017 16:48:27 GMT

You can specify the timezone for your data when publishing from Pro. You can find the setting in the Share As Web Layer dialog under the configuration tab > configure parameters:

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

NaomiBegg2 — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 02:45:40 GMT

It would be great if this functionality could be used for Survey123 created layers. Currently if we export to CSV for further reporting or analysis (which often include analysing response times) our dates are out. This could end up being a deal breaker while we consider if we use Survey123.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

AaronKoelker — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 16:32:21 GMT

Is there anything you can do in ArcMap to replicate giving the entire dataset a time zone? I know you can use the Time tab in layer properties to change it for one or two date fields, but I have some datasets that require three or more date fields and this causes problems in ArcGIS Online.

For example, three separate date fields for Incident Start Date, Incident End Date, and Incident Reported Date.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

ShawnyEkadis — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 18:31:20 GMT

Please add portal also. I am trying to create a map and dashboard of our fire incidents in our portal and it also converts the date fields (of which there are many). ArcGIS Pro is not an option for us currently because you have to publish to a federated portal/server which is a separate issue with its own problems.

Re: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online

SørenTollund — Tue, 08 May 2018 11:32:17 GMT

I agree. We really need the ability to 'tell' the webmap that it should not automatically try to convert time to (or from) UTC. If I create a label showing DateTime on the layer as part of a dynamic map service, this label is apparently passed without time conversion to the webmap as I want it to do. Viewing a popup for the same feature in the webmap shows another DateTime-value because of the UTC conversion, in some cases it even results in another date. Image here showing an offset of 2 hours around midnight.

It's very hard to explain the meaning of this to an end user.