1 

     2 Dates functions

     3 ---------------

     4 

     5 Dates functions are used to convert dates from/to string representation:

     6 

     7     >>> from datetime import datetime

     8     >>> from pyams_utils import date

     9     >>> now = datetime.fromtimestamp(1205000000)

    10     >>> now

    11     datetime.datetime(2008, 3, 8, 19, 13, 20)

    12 

    13 You can get an unicode representation of a date in ASCII format using 'unidate' fonction ; date is

    14 converted to GMT:

    15 

    16     >>> udate = date.unidate(now)

    17     >>> udate

    18     '2008-03-08T19:13:20+00:00'

    19 

    20 'parse_date' can be used to convert ASCII format into datetime:

    21 

    22     >>> ddate = date.parse_date(udate)

    23     >>> ddate

    24     datetime.datetime(2008, 3, 8, 19, 13, 20, tzinfo=<StaticTzInfo 'GMT'>)

    25 

    26 'date_to_datetime' can be used to convert a 'date' type to a 'datetime' value ; if a 'datetime' value

    27 is used as argument, it is returned 'as is':

    28 

    29     >>> ddate.date()

    30     datetime.date(2008, 3, 8)

    31     >>> date.date_to_datetime(ddate)

    32     datetime.datetime(2008, 3, 8, 19, 13, 20, tzinfo=<StaticTzInfo 'GMT'>)

    33     >>> date.date_to_datetime(ddate.date())

    34     datetime.datetime(2008, 3, 8, 0, 0)

    35 

    36 

    37 Timezones handling

    38 ------------------

    39 

    40 Timezones handling gave me headaches at first. I finally concluded that the best way (for me !) to handle

    41 TZ data was to store every datetime value in GMT timezone.

    42 As far as I know, there is no easy way to know the user's timezone from his request settings. So you can:

    43 - store this timezone in user's profile,

    44 - define a static server's timezone

    45 - create and register a ServerTimezoneUtility to handle server default timezone.

    46 

    47 My current default user's timezone is set to 'Europe/Paris' ; you should probably update this setting in

    48 'timezone.py' if you are located elsewhere.

    49 

    50     >>> from pyams_utils import timezone

    51     >>> timezone.tztime(ddate)

    52     datetime.datetime(2008, 3, 8, 19, 13, 20, tzinfo=<StaticTzInfo 'GMT'>)

    53 

    54 'gmtime' function can be used to convert a datetime to GMT:

    55 

    56     >>> timezone.gmtime(now)

    57     datetime.datetime(2008, 3, 8, 19, 13, 20, tzinfo=<StaticTzInfo 'GMT'>)