Planning Multi User Timer Zone Solution?

[raymanj]

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this question.

I am working on a solution that will have several users connecting to it from different time zones. I am wondering what will happen when dates and times are entered in to the database. Will they reflect the current users location or will they be normalized to one time zone where the server is?

If they are local zone based how will that look to the users when records have dates in the future? Or when users create records at about the same time but the times are grossly different.

How would I sort records by date or time if they are scattered across all time zones?

Could someone give me some advice that may have delt with this.

[Lee Smith]

Hi raymanj,

How are the files being accessed?

Lee

[raymanj]

How are the files being accessed?

The access will be through FM8 clients to a central FM server.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Take a look at the Get(CurrentHostTimeStamp) function. That way all timestamp tags are driven by the host CPU (the Server) not by the workstation CPU.

Auto enter by calculation.

HTH

Steven

[raymanj]

Take a look at the Get(CurrentHostTimeStamp) function. That way all timestamp tags are driven by the host CPU (the Server) not by the workstation CPU.

I have seen this function, but what happens when the Get(CurrentHostTimeStamp) is called and the server is in the Eastern time zone and a user, in the Western time Zone, creates a record and a time is auto entered? What will the user see a on their screen? Their current time (Western coast) or what the servers time zone.

I am just afraid that a user will see an entered time or date and think their is a bug as times and dates are in the future or past.

I am just trying to get some data from others who have dealt with this before. Any pitfalls that may arise.

[Steven H. Blackwell]

The user will see the time from the Server. That's the whole purpose for using that function.

You can either instruct users as to what the time stamp means, or you can have a second field that displays the time in the local time zone.

What is the purpose here? Is it to maintain a uniform time stamp reference point? Some servers run on GMT and no times are local.

Steven

[raymanj]

You can either instruct users as to what the time stamp means, or you can have a second field that displays the time in the local time zone.

Ok, so I would need to have a second field calc to show the local time based on the other time field.

What is the purpose here? Is it to maintain a uniform time stamp reference point? Some servers run on GMT and no times are local.

I can see how this would be much easier if all users knew that all times are GMT.

Thanks