time zone specific date in response when requested

[iameugenejo]

Current spec requires any date time field in response to be in UTC timezone.

It's generally client's responsibility to format the date time field,

but, is there a use case that we want to allow users to ask for date time field in response in specific timezone?

[ardiesaeidi]

My concern with allowing this is now the API developer will have to manage datetime properly and that becomes a slippery slope.

• UTC is more reliable, the client can display the date and time in whatever format they want
• Users are in timezones, not offsets and that can change over time
  • What happens if a client saves the converted date values and they are no longer correct?
  • For example, what if california no longer observes DST but a client stores those values?

[teehill]

So just use UTC with offset and avoid the daylight savings debacle?

[iameugenejo]

I agree, but what do we do when customers want the date fields in their timezone offset at the time of their request?

Interpreting the time difference due to timezone change after DST change is on them in that case, of course.

[iameugenejo]

By the way, I have 0 problem with responding UTC date fields as long as I can include non-UTC date time for downloadable contents for this issue - #20

[ardiesaeidi]

So just use UTC with offset and avoid the daylight savings debacle?

No unfortunately offset is heavily dependent on the timezone and that is also affected by DST.