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   1  <h2>Creating a timezone form item using Date API</h2>
   2  <p>
   3  This is simple. Just use the 'date_timezone' type, which is provided by date_api.module.
   4  </p>
   5  <pre>
   6  &lt;?php
   7    $form['timezone'] = array(
   8      '#type' => 'date_timezone',
   9      '#default_value' => $timezone,
  10      '#description' => "Select a timezone if all the events will happen in the same place. Select that place's timezone",
  11    );
  12  ?&gt;
  13  </pre>
  14  <h2>Converting to and from UTC</h2>
  15  <p>
  16  In the new system you just need to know the timezone name and either the UTC or local time. We store the UTC time and the timezone name in the database (in two separate fields). We retrieve that data and do:
  17  </p>
  18  <pre>
  19  &lt;?php
  20  $date = the UTC value from the database
  21  $local_zone = the name of the local timezone
  22  $type = the type of date value, DATE_DATETIME, DATE_ISO, or DATE_UNIX
  23  
  24  $date = date_make_date($date, 'UTC', $type);
  25  date_timezone_set($date, timezone_open($local_zone);
  26  
  27  $date now contains the local value of the date.
  28  Output it like:
  29  
  30  print date_format_date($date, 'custom', 'm/d/Y H:i');
  31  ?&gt;
  32  </pre>
  33  <p>
  34  To convert a local date back to UTC to store it in the database, do:
  35  </p>
  36  <pre>
  37  &lt;?php
  38  $date = local date value
  39  $local_zone = the name of the local timezone
  40  $type = the type of date value, DATE_DATETIME, DATE_ISO, or DATE_UNIX
  41  
  42  $date = date_make_date($date, $local_zone, $type);
  43  date_timezone_set($date, timezone_open('UTC');
  44  
  45  $date now contains the UTC value of the date.
  46  Output it like:
  47  
  48  print date_format_date($date, 'custom', 'm/d/Y H:i');
  49  ?&gt;
  50  </pre>
  51  
  52  <h2>Use of timezone abbreviations</h2>
  53  <p>
  54  The API doesn't handle <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/">timezone abbreviations</a> at all, there's no way to do it right because they are not unique (EST could be Eastern Standard Time or European Summer Time). We need the full, undeprecated timezone name, which looks like 'America/Chicago'. It is comprised of the name of the continent and the major city in the timezone. Older names like 'US/Central' are deprecated because the area names change, but city names rarely do. Some good info about timezones is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoneinfo.
  55  </p><p>
  56  Also, we do not use spaces in the timezone names, so we use America/New_York, not America/New York. The PHP 5.2 date functions and MYSQL native timezone handling all expect names without spaces in them to work correctly.
  57  </p><p>
  58  You can use the <a href="http://php.net/manual/en/function.timezone-name-from-abbr.php">php function <code>timezone_name_from_abbr()</code></a> to try to translate to and from abbreviations, but it's not entirely reliable, as noted above. If we have the current offset and we know if it's currently daylight savings time or not, you can combine that with the abbreviation to get the timezone name, but that's a lot of 'if's.
  59  </p>
  60  <h2>Timezone Names</h2>
  61  <p>
  62  The complete list of allowed, undeprecated timezone names is:
  63  </p>
  64  <pre>
  65  Africa/Algiers
  66  Africa/Asmera
  67  Africa/Bangui
  68  Africa/Blantyre
  69  Africa/Brazzaville
  70  Africa/Bujumbura
  71  Africa/Cairo
  72  Africa/Ceuta
  73  Africa/Dar_es_Salaam
  74  Africa/Djibouti
  75  Africa/Douala
  76  Africa/Gaborone
  77  Africa/Harare
  78  Africa/Johannesburg
  79  Africa/Kampala
  80  Africa/Khartoum
  81  Africa/Kigali
  82  Africa/Kinshasa
  83  Africa/Lagos
  84  Africa/Libreville
  85  Africa/Luanda
  86  Africa/Lubumbashi
  87  Africa/Lusaka
  88  Africa/Malabo
  89  Africa/Maputo
  90  Africa/Maseru
  91  Africa/Mbabane
  92  Africa/Mogadishu
  93  Africa/Nairobi
  94  Africa/Ndjamena
  95  Africa/Niamey
  96  Africa/Porto-Novo
  97  Africa/Tripoli
  98  Africa/Tunis
  99  Africa/Windhoek
 100  America/Adak
 101  America/Anchorage
 102  America/Anguilla
 103  America/Antigua
 104  America/Araguaina
 105  America/Aruba
 106  America/Asuncion
 107  America/Atka
 108  America/Barbados
 109  America/Belem
 110  America/Belize
 111  America/Boa_Vista
 112  America/Bogota
 113  America/Boise
 114  America/Buenos_Aires
 115  America/Cambridge_Bay
 116  America/Cancun
 117  America/Caracas
 118  America/Catamarca
 119  America/Cayenne
 120  America/Cayman
 121  America/Chicago
 122  America/Chihuahua
 123  America/Cordoba
 124  America/Costa_Rica
 125  America/Cuiaba
 126  America/Curacao
 127  America/Dawson
 128  America/Dawson_Creek
 129  America/Denver
 130  America/Detroit
 131  America/Dominica
 132  America/Edmonton
 133  America/Eirunepe
 134  America/El_Salvador
 135  America/Ensenada
 136  America/Fort_Wayne
 137  America/Fortaleza
 138  America/Glace_Bay
 139  America/Godthab
 140  America/Goose_Bay
 141  America/Grand_Turk
 142  America/Grenada
 143  America/Guadeloupe
 144  America/Guatemala
 145  America/Guayaquil
 146  America/Guyana
 147  America/Halifax
 148  America/Havana
 149  America/Hermosillo
 150  America/Indiana/Indianapolis
 151  America/Indiana/Knox
 152  America/Indiana/Marengo
 153  America/Indiana/Vevay
 154  America/Indianapolis
 155  America/Inuvik
 156  America/Iqaluit
 157  America/Jamaica
 158  America/Jujuy
 159  America/Juneau
 160  America/Kentucky/Louisville
 161  America/Kentucky/Monticello
 162  America/Knox_IN
 163  America/La_Paz
 164  America/Lima
 165  America/Los_Angeles
 166  America/Louisville
 167  America/Maceio
 168  America/Managua
 169  America/Manaus
 170  America/Martinique
 171  America/Mazatlan
 172  America/Mendoza
 173  America/Menominee
 174  America/Merida
 175  America/Mexico_City
 176  America/Miquelon
 177  America/Monterrey
 178  America/Montevideo
 179  America/Montreal
 180  America/Montserrat
 181  America/Nassau
 182  America/New_York
 183  America/Nipigon
 184  America/Nome
 185  America/Noronha
 186  America/Panama
 187  America/Pangnirtung
 188  America/Paramaribo
 189  America/Phoenix
 190  America/Port-au-Prince
 191  America/Port_of_Spain
 192  America/Porto_Acre
 193  America/Porto_Velho
 194  America/Puerto_Rico
 195  America/Rainy_River
 196  America/Rankin_Inlet
 197  America/Recife
 198  America/Regina
 199  America/Rio_Branco
 200  America/Rosario
 201  America/Santiago
 202  America/Santo_Domingo
 203  America/Sao_Paulo
 204  America/Scoresbysund
 205  America/Shiprock
 206  America/St_Johns
 207  America/St_Kitts
 208  America/St_Lucia
 209  America/St_Thomas
 210  America/St_Vincent
 211  America/Swift_Current
 212  America/Tegucigalpa
 213  America/Thule
 214  America/Thunder_Bay
 215  America/Tijuana
 216  America/Tortola
 217  America/Vancouver
 218  America/Virgin
 219  America/Whitehorse
 220  America/Winnipeg
 221  America/Yakutat
 222  America/Yellowknife
 223  Antarctica/Casey
 224  Antarctica/Davis
 225  Antarctica/DumontDUrville
 226  Antarctica/Mawson
 227  Antarctica/McMurdo
 228  Antarctica/Palmer
 229  Antarctica/South_Pole
 230  Antarctica/Syowa
 231  Antarctica/Vostok
 232  Arctic/Longyearbyen
 233  Asia/Aden
 234  Asia/Almaty
 235  Asia/Amman
 236  Asia/Anadyr
 237  Asia/Aqtau
 238  Asia/Aqtobe
 239  Asia/Ashgabat
 240  Asia/Ashkhabad
 241  Asia/Baghdad
 242  Asia/Bahrain
 243  Asia/Baku
 244  Asia/Bangkok
 245  Asia/Beirut
 246  Asia/Bishkek
 247  Asia/Brunei
 248  Asia/Calcutta
 249  Asia/Chungking
 250  Asia/Colombo
 251  Asia/Dacca
 252  Asia/Damascus
 253  Asia/Dhaka
 254  Asia/Dili
 255  Asia/Dubai
 256  Asia/Dushanbe
 257  Asia/Gaza
 258  Asia/Harbin
 259  Asia/Hong_Kong
 260  Asia/Hovd
 261  Asia/Irkutsk
 262  Asia/Istanbul
 263  Asia/Jakarta
 264  Asia/Jayapura
 265  Asia/Jerusalem
 266  Asia/Kabul
 267  Asia/Kamchatka
 268  Asia/Karachi
 269  Asia/Kashgar
 270  Asia/Katmandu
 271  Asia/Krasnoyarsk
 272  Asia/Kuala_Lumpur
 273  Asia/Kuching
 274  Asia/Kuwait
 275  Asia/Macao
 276  Asia/Magadan
 277  Asia/Manila
 278  Asia/Muscat
 279  Asia/Nicosia
 280  Asia/Novosibirsk
 281  Asia/Omsk
 282  Asia/Phnom_Penh
 283  Asia/Pyongyang
 284  Asia/Qatar
 285  Asia/Rangoon
 286  Asia/Riyadh
 287  Asia/Riyadh87
 288  Asia/Riyadh88
 289  Asia/Riyadh89
 290  Asia/Saigon
 291  Asia/Samarkand
 292  Asia/Seoul
 293  Asia/Shanghai
 294  Asia/Singapore
 295  Asia/Taipei
 296  Asia/Tashkent
 297  Asia/Tbilisi
 298  Asia/Tehran
 299  Asia/Tel_Aviv
 300  Asia/Thimbu
 301  Asia/Thimphu
 302  Asia/Tokyo
 303  Asia/Ujung_Pandang
 304  Asia/Ulaanbaatar
 305  Asia/Ulan_Bator
 306  Asia/Urumqi
 307  Asia/Vientiane
 308  Asia/Vladivostok
 309  Asia/Yakutsk
 310  Asia/Yekaterinburg
 311  Asia/Yerevan
 312  Atlantic/Azores
 313  Atlantic/Bermuda
 314  Atlantic/Canary
 315  Atlantic/Cape_Verde
 316  Atlantic/Faeroe
 317  Atlantic/Jan_Mayen
 318  Atlantic/Madeira
 319  Atlantic/South_Georgia
 320  Atlantic/Stanley
 321  Australia/ACT
 322  Australia/Adelaide
 323  Australia/Brisbane
 324  Australia/Broken_Hill
 325  Australia/Canberra
 326  Australia/Darwin
 327  Australia/Hobart
 328  Australia/LHI
 329  Australia/Lindeman
 330  Australia/Lord_Howe
 331  Australia/Melbourne
 332  Australia/NSW
 333  Australia/North
 334  Australia/Perth
 335  Australia/Queensland
 336  Australia/South
 337  Australia/Sydney
 338  Australia/Tasmania
 339  Australia/Victoria
 340  Australia/West
 341  Australia/Yancowinna
 342  Europe/Amsterdam
 343  Europe/Andorra
 344  Europe/Athens
 345  Europe/Belfast
 346  Europe/Belgrade
 347  Europe/Berlin
 348  Europe/Bratislava
 349  Europe/Brussels
 350  Europe/Bucharest
 351  Europe/Budapest
 352  Europe/Chisinau
 353  Europe/Copenhagen
 354  Europe/Dublin
 355  Europe/Gibraltar
 356  Europe/Helsinki
 357  Europe/Istanbul
 358  Europe/Kaliningrad
 359  Europe/Kiev
 360  Europe/Lisbon
 361  Europe/Ljubljana
 362  Europe/London
 363  Europe/Luxembourg
 364  Europe/Madrid
 365  Europe/Malta
 366  Europe/Minsk
 367  Europe/Monaco
 368  Europe/Moscow
 369  Europe/Nicosia
 370  Europe/Oslo
 371  Europe/Paris
 372  Europe/Prague
 373  Europe/Riga
 374  Europe/Rome
 375  Europe/Samara
 376  Europe/San_Marino
 377  Europe/Sarajevo
 378  Europe/Simferopol
 379  Europe/Skopje
 380  Europe/Sofia
 381  Europe/Stockholm
 382  Europe/Tallinn
 383  Europe/Tirane
 384  Europe/Tiraspol
 385  Europe/Uzhgorod
 386  Europe/Vaduz
 387  Europe/Vatican
 388  Europe/Vienna
 389  Europe/Vilnius
 390  Europe/Warsaw
 391  Europe/Zagreb
 392  Europe/Zaporozhye
 393  Europe/Zurich
 394  Indian/Antananarivo
 395  Indian/Chagos
 396  Indian/Christmas
 397  Indian/Cocos
 398  Indian/Comoro
 399  Indian/Kerguelen
 400  Indian/Mahe
 401  Indian/Maldives
 402  Indian/Mauritius
 403  Indian/Mayotte
 404  Indian/Reunion
 405  Pacific/Apia
 406  Pacific/Auckland
 407  Pacific/Chatham
 408  Pacific/Easter
 409  Pacific/Efate
 410  Pacific/Enderbury
 411  Pacific/Fakaofo
 412  Pacific/Fiji
 413  Pacific/Funafuti
 414  Pacific/Galapagos
 415  Pacific/Gambier
 416  Pacific/Guadalcanal
 417  Pacific/Guam
 418  Pacific/Honolulu
 419  Pacific/Johnston
 420  Pacific/Kiritimati
 421  Pacific/Kosrae
 422  Pacific/Kwajalein
 423  Pacific/Majuro
 424  Pacific/Marquesas
 425  Pacific/Midway
 426  Pacific/Nauru
 427  Pacific/Niue
 428  Pacific/Norfolk
 429  Pacific/Noumea
 430  Pacific/Pago_Pago
 431  Pacific/Palau
 432  Pacific/Pitcairn
 433  Pacific/Ponape
 434  Pacific/Port_Moresby
 435  Pacific/Rarotonga
 436  Pacific/Saipan
 437  Pacific/Samoa
 438  Pacific/Tahiti
 439  Pacific/Tarawa
 440  Pacific/Tongatapu
 441  Pacific/Truk
 442  Pacific/Wake
 443  Pacific/Wallis
 444  Pacific/Yap
 445  Pacific/French_Polynesia-Marquesas_Islands
 446  UTC
 447  </pre>