New Info > Text-Wildcards > Time Variables

Next to the current local time and date on the client (environment variables %Date% and %Time%), it is also possible to calculate general time values of the timezone of a client. If, for example, maintenance work begins at 16:00 in one location, then another location in a different timezone needs to know at which local time they will be affected. For this, you can use the so-called UTC* wildcard, which is similar to the ScriptVar wildcard:

[UTC=Date/Time(local) -Offset]

* UTC = Universal Time Coordinated, is conform to GMT at the zero meridian

Comment on syntax:

In our example, maintenance begins at 16:00 local time in Berlin. Berlin is in the timezone UTC +1, ergo the offset is +1 (UTC plus one hour). For getting from local time to UTC, it is necessary to substract the offset of one hour from the local time:

[UTC=16:00 -1:00:00]

It is also possible to use date and time (date-format dd.mm.yyyy):

[UTC=14.02.2008 16:00 -1:00:00]

In case the appropriate UTC time is known, it can be inserted directly:

[UTC=15:00]

The Infotext now contains the information, that a certain UTC-value has to be substituted by the appropriate value in the timezone of the Infoclient. If, for example, an Infoclient is in New York, then his local timezone is UTC -5. In this case, the UTC-tag [UTC=16:00 -1] would be substituted with the value 10:00:00 by the Infoclient in New York.

The offset must be defined in the format hh:mm:ss. If the UTC offset negative (which means west of the UTC), then the offset must be added.

Example:

UTC-Tag in Infotext	Display in UTC +1 (e.g. Berlin)	Display in UTC -5 (e.g. New York)
[UTC=12:00 -1:00:00]	12:00:00	06:00:00 AM
[UTC=09:00 +5:00:00]	15:00:00	09:00:00 AM
[UTC=01.03.2008 22:00 +5:00:00]	02.03.2008 04:00:00	22:00:00 PM