I'm developing an app that stores events with their start times in UTC. I need to figure out how to identify which dates have events since the same UTC time can translate into different local dates worldwide. For instance, an event at 1 AM UTC could be April 1 for some regions and April 2 for others. Is there a better way to handle this than just sending the full list of UTC times to the UI and letting it convert to local time? I want to avoid overwhelming the UI with unnecessary data while ensuring it's accurate. Is it common practice for backends dealing with multiple time zones to handle dates this way?
5 Answers
To address potential timezone changes (like daylight savings), you might want to store both the UTC timestamp and the original timezone when the event is created. This way, if rules change, you still have the correct context for what was intended.
It's a classic challenge with time zones! Most of our systems store events in UTC, and we handle the upcoming display logic on the frontend. Just remember, if you need the UI to filter by dates, they must know how to handle local time conversions. A little prep work on both ends keeps things clean!
Totally agree with keeping everything in UTC. When the frontend needs to display local times, it should convert the times just for presentation. Also, consider having the frontend send its UTC offset with requests, so the API can handle some conversions server-side if needed.
It's best to keep everything in UTC on the backend to avoid confusion when comparing dates. The UI can send start and end times in UTC to the API, and the API should return all events that fall within that range. This way, you avoid any hassle with local time conversions up front.
Remember to keep your API flexible. It can accept a timezone parameter along with dates to calculate the correct UTC range needed for filtering. That way, you aren’t just relying on the user's time zone but also the event's specified time zone.
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