When an end-user requests assistance, which time zone is used for the date/time stamp in the incident or for the agent response?
Environment:
Time zone, Interfaces, All versions
Issue:
When an end-user requests assistance, which time zone is used for the date / time stamp in the incident? Which time zone is used when the agent responds? Why would incident reference numbers be showing tomorrow's date?
Resolution:
The time zone used depends on how you have configured your application and how many interfaces you are using.
Using a Single Interface
If you have one interface, the time zone defined in the TZ_INTERFACE configuration setting (a hidden setting) is used for all time and date information, including the time stamp, the date created field and the date updated field, regardless of which time zone the end-user enters their request from.
For example: If an end-user enters a request from New York and the TZ_INTERFACE setting is set to match the location of the company's home office in California, that is, the Pacific time zone, all time stamp entries will be in Pacific time -- even for entries from the end-user.
Using Multiple Interfaces
If you have multiple interfaces, each interface can be configured with a different time zone in the TZ_INTERFACE configuration settings. In this case, the time stamp that is included in incidents depends on which interface the end-user and the agent are using.
For example: If an end-user enters an assistance request through an interface whose TZ_INTERFACE setting is set to East coast time (EST5EDT), all entries by that user will be in East coast time. If the agent responds to the request through an interface set to Mountain time, the agent's response will be in Mountain time (MST7MDT).
Incidents created with tomorrow's date
There are a couple things to consider when you see incidents created with tomorrow's date. Check the setting TZ_INTERFACE. This will show you the time zone that the interface is set to. It may not be set to your local time zone. All transactions such as private notes and responses within the database will be set per the TZ_INTERFACE setting.
The incident reference number prefix will change to "tomorrow's" date as soon as the first incident has been received on an interface within a current time greater than midnight. For example, if a site has two interfaces, one with a time zone equal to Australia/Sydney and the second interface is set to PST8PDT (American Pacific), the reference numbers for both interfaces will switch as soon as the first incident is submitted on the Australian interface. In this scenario, an incident will be created on the PST8PDT interface with "tomorrow's" date several hours before midnight PST.
Note: For more information on configuring time zones, refer to Answer ID 605: Setting the time zone in Oracle B2C Service.
