[Plugin: Events Manager] ICS and Time Zones

check the dev version, this should be fixed now

I think this is probably the right thread in which to continue timezone discussion.
Since, if I read this thread correctly, the only timezone setting used is the one in General > Settings I assume that all events dates and times are set according to that clock. As I anticipate events to be created all around the world I have set the General > Settings timezone to Apia in Western Samoa.
My thinking here is that as events are created in various countries using what appear to the creator as local dates and times they will remain in the ‘future’ events list until the inserted date and time have expired in Samoa.

Is this correct?

Thus an event created by me in Australia to take place from 9am to 3pm on 30th November 2011 will remain visible to all users until that date and time in Apia – although by the time it does expire it will be 5pm on 1st December here on Australia’s east coast.

If, on the other hand, I was to set the timezone according to Australian time then, an event created for a venue on the west coast of USA would expire some 18 (or 19) hours before it actually takes place.

Have I got this right?

If my thinking is correct then it is just necessary to emphasise to users that when they create events they use local dates and times but when they view events they need to be aware of the event location and the fact that dates and times are local to that location.

Like some of the other contributors to this thread I should like to be sure of how it works because there is a possibility that some users will travel to events, others my attend by video conference and some attend in person but locally.

Sorry for such a long question.

Regards

Paul

eventually we’ll look at event-specific timezones, but atm it’s just one timezone which would present this sort of limitation

Thanks Marcus,
I think I can manage the limitation in the prototype for my community, so far nobody has bothered to try setting up an event from another country anyway.
Regards
Paul

We are having issues with our iCal file as well. On our website, everything appears properly but in the iCal file no timezone is set so most iCal readers default to GMT when we are on PST resulting in times being way, way off.

https://nottsforestsoccer.com/boys2002b/events/
https://nottsforestsoccer.com/boys2002b/events/events.ics

Timezone is configured in the admin properly. This is a WordPress multisite install.

could it be your timezone on the sub-blog or root blog isn’t right?

Timezone is set properly in the root blog, sub blogs don’t have the General Settings tab to define a timezone.

I’m not sure if this is specific to the nottsforestsoccer ics file (mentinoed above) .. but I think I can explain what the problem is, and hopefully Marcus can come up with a solution .. either in the code or specific to that blog ..

The times are entered as Pacific .. and they show up just fine on the calendar. In the ICS file, the the DTSTART and DTEND are *supposed* to be converted into Zulu time .. and while they do have a “Z” on the end of them, the timestamp is still Pacific .. (Note: its actually an hour off as well, no doubt a daylight savings issue where its recording PDT instead of PST or vice versa) …

The point is .. when Google Calendar (or anything else) reads in the file, it *thinks* it is in Zulu/UTC/GMT time .. but the stamp is not being adjusted to that time when outputted to the .ics file.

Example:
An event happening May 23rd @ 5pm Pacific has a
DTSTART:20120523T180000Z

(Which is 6pm) … clearly not the Zulu time … which should be… if I’m not mistaken … 6hrs later (thus 7hrs ahead of the original time [GMT -7:00])
So .. something like
DTSTART:20120524T000000Z

So, is it the individual blog’s fault that the timestamp isn’t properly being converted to Zulu .. or is the plugin?

As a quick addition … I looked at the main blog’s calendar for this site and it is behaving properly. This is indeed a sub-blog issue .. I’m not sure how that helps debugging .. but there you have it.

two things to seperate here, ICS and calendars/listings on the site (not the fullcalendar, just the plain html stuff).

The listings on the site show the time as typed in, no adjustments. So it’ll always be correct.

ICS should now adjust according to the offset of the blog. I’m now very certain this is working as expected. Check out the demo site and let me know if times are off. It’s set to Madrid time, so it’s in DST now and it’s 2hrs ahead of UTC. From what I can see, it works fine now.

@sccr410 check your user roles, because you can do this in MS (just checked)

I don’t know what you want me to check in regards to user roles. I cannot find any way to define the timezone for a sub blog anywhere in my admin area.

you should raise that as a seperate issue on the forum, as it’s not something to do with EM.

by roles I mean you may have a plugin that limits what a user like an administrator can do, or maybe try logging in as a super admin if you’re not already doing that.