Time zone toggle in ArcGIS Pro

[MTaft-Ferguson]

If this older idea cannot be implemented: Option to not use UTC time offset in ArcGIS Online 

Could we instead have the option to set ArcGIS Pro to display time in UTC, rather than in the local time zone of the machine it is running on?

The use case that prompts this request is as follows: an organization has some users with Pro, and many more users who only use ArcGIS Online. These AGOL-only users sometimes create new hosted feature services with time fields. It is not feasible for them to publish these feature services from Pro or ArcMap (which I understand would allow them to  associate the local time zone with these feature services). However, when Pro users then interact with those feature services in Pro, time is displayed in the local time; similarly, if Pro users add features, those features' time attributes are added in local time and so display the "wrong" time in AGOL.

As we are trying to use AGOL + Pro for event management, the four/five hour difference between UTC (displayed on AGOL) and Eastern Time (displayed in Pro) is a potential cause for major confusion. It doesn't matter much to us whether the data is actually stored in UTC or not, but it matters that everyone working on this data see the same event occurring at the same hour, regardless of whether they view it via Pro or via AGOL. 

[MadelaineTaftFerguson]

@TanuHoque Great! If this can be managed in the next releases that will be perfect-- opt-in is totally fine for our workflows, we can opt in just for the event management feature classes and leave the rest, because it doesn't matter nearly as much for those. Good to know which is which in terms of which time zone is actually getting displayed where.

[Anonymous User]

Hi @TanuHoque 

Thanks for merging and tagging me in this thread. Yes I think this discussion is relevant to my question so I will keep an eye out for the upcoming changes and review them to see if they help with our use cases.

cheers,

-Paul

@Anonymous User 

[TanuHoque]

Thanks @MadelaineTaftFerguson, @Anonymous User.

We will keep you posted 

[TanuHoque]

hello all,

Now that ArcGIS Pro 2.7 is released and ArcGIS Online December release it out, I'm updating this post with instructions on how to resolve issues you folks mentioned in here.

---

how to update an agol fs with preferredTimeReference

• go to the UpdateDefinition api
  https://servicesdev.arcgis.com/cqvgkJ9ZrNkn9BCU/arcgis/rest/admin/services/<yourServerName>/FeatureServer/updateDefinition?token=<token>&f=pjson
• remove everything from the text box
• copy paste this to set time zone to Pacific Standard Time. Please see the link below for Windows Time Zone IDs for other areas
  { "preferredTimeReference" : { "timeZone" : "Pacific Standard Time", "respectsDaylightSaving" : true } }
• click Update Layer Definition button

here is the link to Microsoft help listing all Windows Time Zone IDs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/embedded/ms912391(v=winembedded.11)

Note: once you update your hosted feature service with preferred time zone, you might need to re-add the layer in Pro.

---

If you happen to use arcade expression to label features with date/time, you might run into a known limit. Here is what you can do:

1. use this arcade expression instead, or
   Text($feature.ADateField, "DD/MM/YYYY HH:mm:ss A")
   
2. use VBScript/Python expression

[TanuHoque]

Please see my last comment on 12/18/2020.

[TanuHoque]

for future reference:

we blogged about the instructions etc. in a blog

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-pro/mapping/working-with-agol-feature-services-date...

[GCPSFAdmin]

@TanuHoque I'm having the following issue when using the directions posted in the blog. I receive this error:

{
  "error" : 
  {
    "code" : 400, 
    "message" : "Unable to update feature service definition.", 
    "details" : [
      "Invalid definition for ''.", 
      "Invalid object passed in, ':' or '}' expected. (3): { “preferredTimeReference” : { “timeZone” : “Mountain Standard Time”, “respectsDaylightSaving” : true } }"
    ]
  }
}

[TanuHoque]

@GCPSFAdmin 

sorry for some reasons I didn't see the notification for your comment.

If you copy/pasted the string from the blog, then I could see why that could fail. The double-quotes were somehow messed up (I have fixed that in the blog too).

please try this and let me know if it still does not work

{ "preferredTimeReference" : { "timeZone" : "AUS Eastern Standard Time", "respectsDaylightSaving" : true } }

[MikeLachance1]

@TanuHoqueI was able to add the preferredTimeReference in my definition but when I view the data table in ArcGIS Online, it still hows the data in UTC. Any idea what is going on?

[TanuHoque]

@MikeLachance1 

AGOL map viewer doesn't have the support for Preferred Time Zone yet.

But it should always show results in your device time zone. That is how it has been. It is odd that MapViewer is showing times in UTC. Is your device's time zone happened to be in UTC?