The new daylight savings time will be in effect this year. The new DST makes March 11th. and Nov. 4th. the days that clocks are set forward and back etc. How is this going to impact FM? What will happen? I did a search through the forums and found no discussion on this so I thought I would toss it out there for left brain food.

err... I guess a good question would be "How does FM handle dates?" Does it have internal mechanisms to translate dates and DST?

Clocks are an Operating System function. FileMaker gets its information from your operating system.

HTH

Lee

Not being an FM guru I find it ?reassuring? that FMP(S) handles time and dates through the OS unlike some java and other apps that have internal mechanisms for this. Also, DST change is just an experiment and may change back or tack more on the backend next year or :

I don't know about Windows, but OS X has OS updates for this:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305056

FMP(S) handles time and dates through the OS

That is not exactly so. Filemaker receives the CURRENT date and time from the computer's clock. After that, any "handling" is done internally. Note that a stored time does NOT carry any indication of DST. If this is important for your application, you need to provide for this yourself.

Yes, Windwoes has a patch(s) as does Linux, Solaris, Mac etc. Here's the rub: You live in an area that observes Daylight Savings Time and you create something in FM that deals with time, timestamps or ? and for a 3 week window in March your off by one hour. If FM handles time through the OS then your OK if you patch. If it has internal mechanism to handle time then you have to patch FM or your 1 hour off for a 3 week window. Don't forget the 1 week window on the backend in Nov.

I'm not sure I'm understanding your concern.

If your operating system is in synch with the world, then your FileMaker application will be too. FileMaker gets it current time and date from your operating system.

Lee

OK... let's put this one to rest. You can patch your OS and if you live in an region that observes (new)DST your OS and most applications you run will be fine, however, there are a number of applications that have internal mechanisms to handle time, timestamps and such. These applications have there own patches to handle the new DST changes and if not patched will be incorrect with time sensitive data during the 3 week window up front and the 1 week window on the backend regardless if the OS is patched or not. I looked but could not find any information about FM and the new DST so I thought I would post a question. The question has been more confusing than alarming to those of you who know FM alot better than I do so I feel safe that any FM databases that have time sensitive data etc. will be in sync with the OS patched or not. Thank you all for you replies and your patience.

I'm sorry, but I have never heard of an application that gets it's time from some other source than the Operation System.

If this is true, it sounds like these applications have a problem, not FileMaker, and in my opinion, you should be on their list complain about their products, and asking them this question.

Lee

FM will be "in-sync", as long as the OS is "in-sync". However, if you have a time-sheet solution, for example, and an employee punched in on the evening before DST changeover, and punched out on the following morning, the calculation of time elapsed is going to be incorrect - unless the developer has specifically provided for this.