Android Question Yet another time elapsed question.

[Sub7]

I need to calculate the minutes, hours, days elapsed from a datetime stored on server located in UK and phone date time, the server date time format is: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss
Since the app is distributed worldwide, the elapsed time should not be affected by local phone timezone for this reason i have set: Datetime.SetTimeZone(1) but im not sure if this code is correct or is gonna fail somehow.

           DateTime.SetTimeZone(1)
           Dim DateString = M.Get("sent_date") As String
           Dim DateTimeTicks As Long
           Dim Date_Time() As String
           Date_Time = Regex.Split(" ", DateString)
           DateTime.DateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd"
           DateTime.TimeFormat = "HH:mm:ss"
           DateTimeTicks = DateTime.DateTimeParse(Date_Time(0), Date_Time(1))
           Dim ticks As Long = DateTime.Now - DateTimeTicks
           Dim minutes As Int = ticks / DateTime.TicksPerMinute

l.

 

[Erel]

This code is incorrect. You need to use DateUtils.PeriodBetween.

You can use DateUtils.SetDate2 to set a date with a different time zone.

 

[Sub7]

Hi, you say that's incorrect because this return only the minutes elapsed or for other reason?
Can you explain please?
i am tryng several solutions: elapsed time (min,hous,days) should be the same in china, japan, jamaica.. worldwide.

And old answer from you for similar a question: http://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/periodbetween-string-and-datetime-now.42201/

thank you

 

[Erel]

If you need to calculate time intervals larger than hours then the only correct way is with DateUtils.PeriodBetween.

For intervals smaller than days you can use simple arithmetic to calculate the difference.

 

[Sub7]

Something like this?

          'Server
                    Dim DateTimeTicksSRV As Long
                    Dim DateStringSRV = m.Get("date") As String
                    Dim Date_TimeSRV() As String
                    Date_TimeSRV = Regex.Split(" ", DateStringSRV)
                    DateTime.DateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd"
                    DateTime.TimeFormat = "HH:mm:ss"
               

                    'Local
                    Dim DateTimeTicksLOCAL As Long
                    Dim LocalDateTime = DateTime.Date(DateTime.Now)&" "&DateTime.Time(DateTime.Now) As String
                    Dim Date_TimeLOCAL() As String
                    Date_TimeLOCAL = Regex.Split(" ", LocalDateTime)
               
               
                    DateTimeTicksSRV = DateTime.DateTimeParse(Date_TimeSRV(0), Date_TimeSRV(1))
                    DateTimeTicksLOCAL = DateTime.DateTimeParse(Date_TimeLOCAL(0), Date_TimeLOCAL(1))

                    Dim period1 As Period
                    period1 = DateUtils.PeriodBetween(DateTimeTicksSRV,DateTimeTicksLOCAL)
               

 
  Dim TimeElapsed As String
           If period1.Minutes < 3 Then
           TimeElapsed = "Just now!"         
           Else If period1.Minutes > 3 AND period1.Minutes < 60 AND period1.Hours = 1 Then
           TimeElapsed = period1.Minutes &" Min"
           Else If period1.Hours > 1 Then
           TimeElapsed = period1.hours &" Hours"
           Else If period1.Days >= 1 AND period1.Months < 1 Then
           TimeElapsed = period1.Days &" Days"
           Else If period1.Months >= 1 Then
           TimeElapsed = period1.Months &" Months"
           End If

Not sure if this work correctly, i am abit confused.

 

[Sub7]

This dirty thing seems to work, not sure is this whole thing will works worlwide

 Dim TimeElapsed As String
                   If period1.Minutes < 3 Then
                   TimeElapsed = "Just now!"      
                   Else If period1.Minutes > 3 AND period1.Minutes < 60 AND period1.Hours = 1 AND period1.Months < 1 AND period1.Months < 12 Then
                   TimeElapsed = period1.Minutes &" Min"
                   Else If period1.Hours > 1 AND period1.Months < 1 AND period1.Months < 12 Then
                   TimeElapsed = period1.hours &" Hours"
                   Else If period1.Days >= 1 AND period1.Months < 1 AND period1.Months < 1 AND period1.Months < 12 Then
                   TimeElapsed = period1.Days &" Days"
                   Else If period1.Months <> 0 Then
                   TimeElapsed = period1.Months &" Months"
                   End If

Years are never calculated since entries that are 6 months old are deleted.

 

[Erel]

I think that there is a problem in your code with the server time zone. Can't it be different then the local time zone?

 

[Sub7]

Hello, yes server time is different since the date is stored as timestap on update current timestamp (which is server time not client time)


By setting DateTime.SetTimeZone(0) i get a negative value for example hours=-1 minute= -20 which is okay because in my case gmt+1 there is 1 hour difference between server time and device, but this affect also the second part of the code, which is not ok.
So how i can set and unset this?


By not setting datetime.setTimeZone and changing timezone on device i simulated to be in china, alaska, the result is wrong.

what's going on?

 

[Sub7]

Maybe my question wasnt clear:
i have this date on db: 2014-10-15 14:00:00
In app i want to show the time elapsed from 2014-10-15 14:00:00 and current server time for example 14:05:00
if i am in china and today is 2014-10-15 hour 23:30 the result should be 5 minutes,
if i am in jamaica and today is 2014-10-15 19:20:00 the result must still be 5 minutes.

 

[Erel]

How do you get the current server time?

 

[Sub7]

I'm not getting the server time itself but if neeeded i could do that.
For now i just fetch the values stored on db in this format: 0000-00-00 00:00:00
The datetime on db is stored while INSERT INTO tablename statement is executed and it is relative the local server time gmt+0 UK.
Not the device date time.

Thank you.

 

[Erel]

Store all time values in GMT and then set the application time zone to 0 with DateTime.SetTimeZone.

This way you will not need to worry about time zones at all.

 

[Sub7]

Thank you boss

 

[Sub7]

So i resolved just by modify my query in this way:

$query ="INSERT INTO table (field1,date) VALUES (".$xxx.", utc_timestamp())";

And by setting

DateTime.SetTimeZone(0)

Works perfectly.