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calculate time zone or UTC

Question asked by jroganesri-ca-esridist

on Dec 19, 2017
Latest reply on Sep 10, 2018 by JTedrick-esristaff

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Hello, I'm trying to calculate a custom string from a date and time using the now() function. This gives my the local time, which is fine, kinda. What I need to know is the timezone of this local time, or the zulu time. I'm using the info found at:

Dates and Time in Survey123 for ArcGIS

It would be great if there was a %timezone or something that returned the UTC offset but there isn't. Is there any way to calculate this? I'm wondering if it could be calculated out of a decimal date or something, but I'm limited to what I can use as a calculation in Survey123.

My goal is to write a military date-time group, EXAMPLE: 091630Z JUL 11 represents 1630 UTC on 9 July 2011. There is more to my final formatting than that though, saving it as a date/time object won't help.

Thanks!

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Philip.Wilson-esristaff Dec 19, 2017 7:04 PM
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Hi Joseph,

We do not currently have a property or parameter to return the UTC offset or timezone with a date/time question or in a string as part of a calculation. We have an open enhancement request to support UTC offset parameters and I have added your comments to the issue.

Regards,
Phil.
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JTedrick-esristaff Apr 3, 2018 11:04 AM
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Hi Jospeh,

With 2.7, Survey123 has just introduced UTC offset recording:

The function pulldata("@property", 'utcoffset') can now be used to capture and record the UTC time zone offset of the device.
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- damienhoffman_usfs @ JTedrick-esristaff on Apr 4, 2018 1:37 PM
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  James,
  Can you share an example or has this function been added to a sample template?
  
  Thanks
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  - JTedrick-esristaff @ damienhoffman_usfs on Apr 4, 2018 1:40 PM
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    Hi Damien,
    
    You will find the function at the bottom of the updated 'Date & Time' template. It presents the offset in decimal hours (most timezones are an even number of hours off of UTC) to facilitate the addition. True addition in Survey123 will be to add the offset value to the time recorded to create a 'fake' local time when downloading from AGOL.
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    - r3weber @ JTedrick-esristaff on Jul 30, 2018 12:54 PM
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      James is there an example of this calculation somewhere? I know it should be pretty straightforward to apply the utcoffset to now() but I am confused as to formatting of these values.
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      - ichivite-esristaff @ r3weber on Jul 30, 2018 4:53 PM
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        quick sample here. Do not forget to keep your UTC date as a string.
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        jrflannery @ ichivite-esristaff on Aug 17, 2018 6:32 AM
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        Ismael:
        I am using the XLS Form Type "start" and "end" to capture the date and time the form was opened and then submitted. The times recorded for start and end appear correctly in the survey's hosted feature service, but when printed to the a MS-Word report from the Survey123 webpage, the time is reported as 5 hours ahead (utcoffset).
        
        I am using your information in an attempt to fix my offset time, but I don't understand your last comment "Do not forget to keep your UTC date as a string."
        When I use the field types and calculations as shown, below, I get a 13 integer return.
        
        What should my field types be in order to return a date and time in my time zone? What am I doing wrong?
        
        The Survey123 Community and I appreciate your time and attention to our questions. Thank you!
        Joe
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        JTedrick-esristaff @ jrflannery on Aug 17, 2018 10:06 AM
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        Hi Joe,
        
        I would suggest using the format-date() function to write out the time to a hidden/calculate question to store the date as a local string.
        
        On the reporting of time 5 hours ahead, I can see this problem and have logged an issue to correct it.
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        jrflannery @ JTedrick-esristaff on Aug 17, 2018 12:49 PM
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        James:
        Thank you for your attention. I'll do that for now.
        
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        wws_ahargreaves @ jrflannery on Sep 10, 2018 5:31 AM
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        James Tedrick
        
        I'm assuming there's no way to include 'utcOffset' within 'now()' ? I tried the below to no success:
        now(pulldata("@property","utcOffset"))
        Thanks
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        JTedrick-esristaff @ wws_ahargreaves on Sep 10, 2018 8:37 AM
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        Hi Andrew,
        
        The now() function takes no parameters - it simple returns the current timestamp. If you are wanting to generate a 'local' timestamp (one with the UTC offset built-in to support systems that are not timezone aware), you would need to add the offset to the timestamp (in the calculation column):
        now() + pulldata("@property", "utcoffset")*60*60*1000
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        jrflannery @ JTedrick-esristaff on Aug 31, 2018 1:12 PM
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        James:
        
        I was excited to see the time error bug fix in report generation in the August 30th update to Survey123 website. I don't know if what I am reporting here is a bug or expected behavior.
        
        As shown in my earlier posting, above, I am using the "start" and "end" options in the "type" field to automatically get the start time and end time of the survey form. I take those results and format them and save them as text.
        I discovered that if the "type" field for my StartDTtext and StopDTtext items is "hidden", then my times are output in the S123 Word report incorrectly (see below). If the "type" field for my StartDTtext and StopDTtext items is "text", then my times are output in the S123 Word report correctly (see below). This is true even though my "bind::esri:fieldType = esriFieldTypeString".
        
        Thank you for your time
        Joe
        
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