[wp-hackers] Storing absolute time stamps

[Mark Jaquith]

On Jun 26, 2007, at 10:07 AM, Otto wrote:

> On 6/25/07, Mark Jaquith <mark.wordpress at txfx.net> wrote:
>> Because DST (or other time-shifting scheme) start/end dates *aren't*
>> constant, it doesn't make sense to have timezones coded into
>> WordPress.  That'd be a big maintenance burden.
>
> As of php 5.1 and up, all that stuff is built in:
> http://php.net/manual/en/function.date-default-timezone-set.php

Which is cool, but WordPress supports PHP >= 4.2

> It seems to me that the best way would be to allow the user to enter a
> timezone string directly, and then to act accordingly. Some of this
> work has already been done here:
> http://drakecms.sourceforge.net/index.php? 
> option=content&id=32&Itemid=10
> http://drakecms.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/drakecms/trunk/includes/ 
> i18n/

They're supporting it by maintaining their own timezone/offset  
database for PHP 4 compat... so they'll have that maintenance burden.

>> Allowing the user to specify start/end dates (and new offset within
>> that range) is a possible solution, but it's pretty geeky.  Plugins
>> can solve this issue, which moves the maintenance burden off of
>> WordPress core and doesn't present needless options to people who
>> don't live in a timezone-shifting area of the world.  Plugins can
>> also be updated more frequently than WordPress, so when politicians
>> change the dates or start/stop timezone shifting, the people using
>> the plugin can just update.
>
> Putting it all in a plugin makes sense, but there needs to be some way
> for a plugin to override the timezone functionality throughout
> Wordpress. Can that be easily done?

Sure... the plugin can just update the offset option in the  
database.  When it enters a DST range, it can change it to the new  
offset.

--
Mark Jaquith
http://markjaquith.com/

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