Dealing with Time Zones
- by RavIncredible
Hi All,
I need some guidance with one of my project requirements, I am developing an application which has to deal with various time zones.
Scenario:
User 1 is from India, so his time zone would be GMT+05:30
User 2 is from UK, so his time zone would be GMT+01:00
If the User 1 sends a message to User 2, I want to show the Message Sent/Received Time as per the user’s time zone. For example User 1 sends a message at 6:30 Indian time, when User 2 would view the message it would show as 2:00 UK time.
Here goes my question, whenever I save the message should I convert it to GMT+00, so all my base times stamps are the same and then later when I display the message, I convert it back to User specific time zone. Would this be complex? Is this the best way of doing this?
I like to get views for both saving and displaying, also when I should do the time conversion from optimization point of view. I would need do deal with any/all timezones.
I am developing this application with PHP and MySQL and I am aware of timezone conversion method come with both PHP and MySQL.
I am just trying to figure out the best way of doing this. Look forward to have all valuable suggestions.
Note : As of now I am not much worried with day/light savings.
Thanks
Ravi
