Countries and TimeZones

[Martin Brunner]

I want to make a list like [url]http://www.rs-data.at/martin/ausgabe.html[/url].

People can enter the data at [url]http://www.rs-data.at/martin/eingabe.html[/url]
(doesn't work yet).

This is a list when competitions for a certain game start. The green and
red light should start flashing 10 minutes before the cup starts.

But the problem I have: The guys who start the server for a competiton
might be in different countries. So how can I figure out when the light
should start flashing?

I thought of creating a drop-down box for entering the country in the
entry-formular and binding this drop-down with a info of the current
time zone. But summer and winter time might chance and also some
countries have different Time Zones.

Maybe I could get the local time from his computer, or maybe something
else?

[Monika Beisel]

Hi Martin,

Martin Brunner schrieb:

> But the problem I have: The guys who start the server for a competiton
> might be in different countries. So how can I figure out when the light
> should start flashing?
>
> I thought of creating a drop-down box for entering the country in the
> entry-formular and binding this drop-down with a info of the current
> time zone. But summer and winter time might chance and also some
> countries have different Time Zones.
>
> Maybe I could get the local time from his computer, or maybe something
> else?

You could get the local time of the client computer (via JavaScript).
But why would you want to do it in such a complicated manner? Why not
just use the local time on your own webserver? Should be accessible
through PHP enviroment variables, though ...

It seems to me that the time function should do the trick:
[url]http://de3.php.net/manual/en/function.time.php[/url]
--
________________________________
Monika E. L. Beisel
Universität Kaiserslautern
E-Mail: [email]beisel@rhrk.uni-kl.de[/email]

[Martin Brunner]

Monika Beisel schrieb:

>You could get the local time of the client computer (via JavaScript).
>But why would you want to do it in such a complicated manner? Why not
>just use the local time on your own webserver? Should be accessible
>through PHP enviroment variables, though ...

I guess people enter their times and don't want to calculate much. Also
the Server is in the US and most competitors are from Finland, so it
might be confusing for them always to add 8 hours just to know when the
next competition starts.

[Monika Beisel]

Martin Brunner schrieb:

> Monika Beisel schrieb:
>
>

>>You could get the local time of the client computer (via JavaScript).
>>But why would you want to do it in such a complicated manner? Why not
>>just use the local time on your own webserver? Should be accessible
>>through PHP enviroment variables, though ...

>
>
> I guess people enter their times and don't want to calculate much. Also
> the Server is in the US and most competitors are from Finland, so it
> might be confusing for them always to add 8 hours just to know when the
> next competition starts.

There are 2 possibilities:
- people "start the race" by clicking the button exactly ten minutes
before the race starts (then you can use your server time)

- or -

- people enter the starting time *WITH* the appropriate time zone of the
location where the race is going to take place. You should use a
dropdown list like "GMT + 1: Berlin", "GMT: London", etc. You can store
the values in your database in a special time format including the time
zone.

--
________________________________
Monika E. L. Beisel
Universität Kaiserslautern
E-Mail: [email]beisel@rhrk.uni-kl.de[/email]

[Don Crossman]

Martin Brunner <mbrunner@mcnon.com> wrote in news:bkmcdt$3dpi5$1@ID-
819.news.uni-berlin.de:

> [url]http://www.rs-data.at/martin/ausgabe.html[/url]

Here's what I would do (and have): Use javascript to determine the user's
timezone (getTimezoneOffset) and store it as a session variable. Store all
event times as GMT. I'm sure you can take it from there.

-- Don