Record time in correct time zone

[WhitneyWeber]

When collecting data via my Survey123 with a field type of dateTime and bind::esri:fieldType of esriFieldTypeDate, the time displays correctly, but is recorded 4 hours different (presumably UTC). How do I get the recorded data to reflect the correct time zone? Do I need to record it in a different field of type calculate with something like now().toLocaleString or now()+int(2400) (2400 because 60*4hours)? I would think this would be a common question, but can't find it anywhere.

[JamesTedrick]

Hi Whitney,

ArcGIS Online stores datetime information as UTC timestamps - see Dates and Time in Survey123 for ArcGIS.  Web applications should automatically adjust the time to display in your time zone; some desktop applications like ArcGIS Pro do not.  Using Survey123 Connect, you can get the device's offset from UTC using the pulldata("@property", 'utcoffset') function, which could then calculate a 'local' time value.

[WhitneyWeber]

James,

Thank you for the reply, but I must have something wrong in what I added because my survey is now stuck 'Publishing' in the first stage of 'Getting form information'.

I kept the original field - name:visit_date, type: dateTime, bind::esri:fieldType: esriFieldTypeDate

I added a field - name: visit_date_local, type: calculate, calculation: pulldata("@visit_date", 'utcoffset'), bind::esri:fieldType: esriFieldTypeDate

Did I misinterpret your instructions or am I just having bad luck with the publishing?

How do I get it to publish? Just delete the survey and build a new one from the spreadsheet?

Whitney

[WhitneyWeber]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I have visit_date with a default value of now(). I did not repeat that in the visit_date_local field, assuming it pulls it from the visit_date field.

[JamesTedrick]

Hi Whitney,

Is this added field within a repeat? There's an issue with publishing when only a field is added to a repeat - I would suggest adding a field in the parent form to publish and then remove the extra field.

[WhitneyWeber]

James,

You nailed it on the repeat! And I got it to publish successfully as you indicated, but the time still is not recording in the correct time zone in the downloaded data. I even added a note field, in case the calculate field required a note field. So I now have the following:

name:visit_date, type: dateTime, default: now(), bind::esri:fieldType: esriFieldTypeDate

name: visit_date_calc, type: calculate, calculation: pulldata("@visit_date", 'utcoffset'), bind::esri:fieldType: esriFieldTypeDate

name: vist_date_note: type: note, calculation: ${visit_date_calc}, bind::esri:fieldType: esriFieldTypeDate

When I download the data, although there is data in the original field of visit_date (albeit the wrong time zone), no date is recorded in either visit_date_calc or visit_date_note, so presumably something is wrong with visit_date_calc. Is the literal string of 'utcoffset' wrong? Should I be entering something else there? And if this ever gets resolved, is there a way for the correct time zone to be reflected in the autopopulated CreationDate and EditDate fields?

Whitney

[JamesTedrick · Accepted solution]

Hi Whitney,

There are a couple of things to adjust:

- '@property' is a keyword and should not be changed.  As the UTC offset is a device setting, it doesn't need to refer to a question

- You need to perform a calculation with the UTC offset value to get the 'local' time.

See the attached example.

[WhitneyWeber]

Thanks so much, James! That was very helpful!

Is there anywhere that information regarding other keywords and device settings can be found? I didn't find these in the types worksheet of the survey spreadsheet and wonder what else I am missing that would be helpful.

[JamesTedrick]

These would not appear in the types worksheet as they aren't part of the XLSForm validation that is what that sheet is used for.  A full description of metadata that can be loaded in as form questions is at Prepopulate answers—Survey123 for ArcGIS | ArcGIS 

[TobyStewart2]

Hi James

Sorry to open an old post but I used the above in a survey and it all goes through Ok, except when I test the submission of the survey and I get the following error

"bigint is incompatible with datetime2"

Any suggestions?