C# DateTimeInvalidLocalFormat - How to set timezone to UTC - c#

I'm working in a EasyPost integration making a class library to make the use of their API simpler and I'm getting this error:
Managed Debugging Assistant 'DateTimeInvalidLocalFormat' has detected a problem in 'C:\Projects\TestClient.vshost.exe'.
Additional information: A UTC DateTime is being converted to text in a format that is only correct for local times. This can happen when calling DateTime.ToString using the 'z' format specifier, which will include a local time zone offset in the output. In that case, either use the 'Z' format specifier, which designates a UTC time, or use the 'o' format string, which is the recommended way to persist a DateTime in text. This can also occur when passing a DateTime to be serialized by XmlConvert or DataSet. If using XmlConvert.ToString, pass in XmlDateTimeSerializationMode.RoundtripKind to serialize correctly. If using DataSet, set the DateTimeMode on the DataColumn object to DataSetDateTime.Utc.
I get this error when I call the Create method in the EasyPost Shipment object. Code below:
Shipment shipment = new Shipment() {
to_address = toAddress,
from_address = fromAddress,
parcel = parcel
};
shipment.Create();
This create function probably makes a call to their REST API and is trying to convert a json response into one of their models.
To solve the error I'm trying to set the UTC as the default of my library so whenever I use DateTime.ToString() I use the DateTime.ToString("o"). I don't know if this would actually solve the problem, but I don't know how to force it (use UTC as the library default). I have tried the piece of code below, but it doesn't work
CultureInfo newCulture = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = newCulture;
Can you help me?

I'm one of the developers on the EasyPost client libraries.
As far as I can find in some basic research, there's no (easy) way to set a default time zone for a C# application. Most of the blog posts and other SO answers I found suggest using utility functions to convert a UTC datetime object to a local datetime object when trying to display it to a string.
EasyPost's API returns all datetimes in UTC time + timezone information (ex. 2022-10-24T12:37:24-06:00), which is accounted for when the JSON is deserialized into a DateTime object in the C# client library.

Related

How to strip timezone from DateTime in .NET Core

I have a use case that I'm not sure how to solve in a nice way.
I'm currently developing a .Net Core WebApi that is receiving data from various current systems, from a cross the whole world. Which I then process and lastly I commit it to SAP through oData endpoint.
The problem I'm having is on of parameters I'm receiving in the body payload, is a DateTime. Previous I have not have any issues. But not long ago I started getting data from a other system which deliverers it in a slightly differently way.
Previously this was the format I got: 2020-09-16T16:30:00 not problem with it. But the new system looks like this: 2020-09-16T16:00:00 -05:00 Could also end in +08:00.
The problem I'm facing is that SAP needs to get in local time. But in the my code it converts this: 2020-09-16T16:00:00 -05:00 to 2020-09-16T23:00:00 when I see the incoming payload in the controller.
I have searched quite a bit to find a solution. But 99% only suggest using UTC time, which is not a option for me.
Another option is to use DateTimeOffset, which I have tried but can't the time conversion to use localTime.
My question is. Are it not possible to custom convert to strip the timezone before it hits the controller?
Generarally when you're working with datetime data that includes offsets for time zone the DateTimeOffset type is a good place to start. The sample string 2020-09-16T16:00:00 -05:00 can be passed to DateTimeOffset.Parse() to get a correct DTO value with timezone information attached. From there you can get the local time, UTC time or a DateTime value with the timezone stripped.
string source = "2020-09-16T16:00:00 -05:00";
string fmt = #"yyyy-MM-dd\THH:mm:ss zzz"
// Same as input
Console.WriteLine(DateTimeOffset.Parse(source).ToString(fmt));
// Adjusted to your local timezone
Console.WriteLine(DateTimeOffset.Parse(source).ToLocalTime().ToString(fmt));
// DateTime portion of the source, timezone offset ignored
Console.WriteLine(DateTimeOffset.Parse(source).DateTime.ToString());
Getting the UTC time is simple too via the UtcDateTime property.
It sounds like what you want is the last one - just the date and time from the inputt string with the timezone offset stripped. If you just want the corresponding local time then DateTime.Parse should give that to you directly.
The JsonSerializer class doesn't support this format for DateTimeOffset so you might have some trouble getting it converted before hitting your controller. In that case you'd need to accept a string and do the conversion by hand in your code. You also might need to investigate the TryParseExact method.
Use DateTime.Parse() , for example
string timeInString1 = "2020-09-16T16:00:00 -05:00";
DateTime moment1 = DateTime.Parse(timeInString1);
string timeInString2 = "2020-09-16T16:00:00 +08:00";
DateTime moment2 = DateTime.Parse(timeInString2);
string timeInString3 = "2020-09-16T16:30:00";
DateTime moment3 = DateTime.Parse(timeInString3);
but momen1, momen2, or moment3 is non-timezone awareness value.

UTC timezone in the OK() function in .NET WebAPI C#

I have a .NET WebAPI which returns some dates as JSON.
I'm using the Ok() function which takes the C# DateTime list and convert them into a JSON array.
My requirement is to specify the timezone in any case (even +00:00)
Now, the format I'm using is:
jsonSerializerSettings.DateFormatString = "o";
which uses the ISO standard and a "Z" to specify UTC.
Unfortunately my web application doesn't understand such convention (I mean, the final "Z") and it requires a timezone offset to be present in any case.
In other words, I'd like to use a "+00:00" instead of the "Z".
How can I tell WebAPI to use such convention?
Previously I had:
jsonSerializerSettings.DateFormatString = "yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss.fffzzz";
which doesn't had the timezone information.
This is not as easy as one would like - mainly, because the DateTime type is confusing at its best, and wrong at its worst.
I would recommend handling only UTC dates on the server (i.e. assuming UTC on any incoming date, saving everything as UTC and returning UTC everywhere) and letting your clients decide if they need to do something about that (e.g. convert to a local time for correct display). Then, it could be as easy as setting
jsonSerializerSettings.DateFormatString = "yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.fff+00:00";
i.e. hard-coding the +00:00 there, since you know (by assumption) that it's going to be UTC.
Use System.DateTimeOffset instead of Use System.DateTime in your return statement (Ok). This will automatically append the +00:00 the the serialized string (+00:00 is assuming its a UTC point in time).
for Web API 2 and higher, I am not sure about previous versions
This is also the default date/time format for other Web API extensions like oData.

Setting format of DateTime - how do I keep the value in DateTime format?

I have a DateTime being created in the format dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss. I am writing code that interacts with a third-party SOAP library that requires a DateTime variable, in the format yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.
How do I change the way the information is stored in the DateTime variable, for the purpose of the call to the third-party SOAP library, i.e. no system-wide changes to dates?
I have investigated CultureInfo, which is mildly confusing and possibly too permanent a solution; the only time I need the DateTime changing is for an instance of this single call.
As an explanation, the library has a function GetOrders(DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate, TradingRoleCodeType roleType, OrderStatusCodeType statusType). When attempting to perform the function with DateTimes as created, it generates an error "Sorry, the end date was missing, invalid, or before the start date. must be in YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS format, and after the start date.". Given the format that is passed in as dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss, I'd think this may be the problem.
I have a DateTime being created in the format dd/MM/yyyy HH:ii:ss
No, you do not. You have a DateTime. It has no format. It is a number - which is well documented, you know, in the documentation. The string form is never used in a stored DateTime, only when generating the string for presentation.
How do I change the way the information is stored in the DateTime
variable, for the purpose of the call to the third-party SOAP library,
i.e. no system-wide changes to dates?
You do not. I would suggest you talk to your SOAP library - and it is not SOAP btw., IIRC the format you give as example is not valid in SOAP. Yes, bad news. Someone wants Pseudo-Soap.
http://www.w3schools.com/schema/schema_dtypes_date.asp
describes all valid date, time and datetime formats and yours is NOT there.
You can change the default format on a thread level back and forth, so one solution is to set it before calls into the soap library. Another one is to have someone fix the SOAP layer to accept standard formats.
You can create a dummy date :
public class SomeClass
{
[XmlIgnore]
public DateTime SomeDate { get; set; }
[XmlElement("SomeDate")]
public string SomeDateString
{
get { return this.SomeDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"); }
set { this.SomeDate = DateTime.Parse(value); }
}
}
Source : Force XmlSerializer to serialize DateTime as 'YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss' --kbrimington
As it turns out, the problem - as some have pointed out - is not to do with the variable being a DateTime, nor its "format" which is not a "format", but is certainly the representation of the information in a method to be understood.
The basic issue with the information was a DateTime comparison between standard time and UTC time. The third-party library examined the DateTime as a UTC DateTime, which when at the right time of year to be caught with a difference in times can cause a problem comparing a DateTime; despite being presented as after the reference time to the user, the time is actually before the reference time when being calculated, meaning the comparison fails.
The main takeaway for this question is to interrogate the information being passed to functions, if you don't have access to third-party library code nor access to documentation with sufficient detail, and errors are occurring when interacting with said third-party code.
Particularly, test various use cases to determine what variable values cause a failure and which cause successful execution of code; identify a pattern, and then test specific use cases that confirm the pattern. From there, determine the actual error that is occurring and code to fix the issue.
In the case of DateTimes, where the code understands DateTimeKinds such as C#, remember to test the different DateTimeKinds to establish whether they can be a part of the problem; its not happened to me often, but it has happened (as evidenced by this question).
Finally, error codes don't help much, and can lead to poor questions and poor advice; trial and error appears to be the best in cases similar to this.
You don't need to change how it's stored, as already mentioned above.
You need to format is as a string according to ISO8601, which is what your SOAP service expects datetime parameter to be.
Check How to parse and generate DateTime objects in ISO 8601 format
and
Given a DateTime object, how do I get an ISO 8601 date in string format?

Date Conversion issue from webservice

I am consuming a Web Service which will return datetime fields in response object.
My reference.cs file has,
private System.DateTime timestampField;
public System.DateTime Timestamp {
get {
return this.timestampField;
}
set {
this.timestampField = value;
}
}
In SOAP UI when I called the service I see it's returning as 2014-06-09T21:24:56+00:00 , 2014-06-17T05:42:00-04:00
I have different Offsets for Different values..
But from my .NET App when I am calling it's converting to some other value as 6/9/2014 5:24:56 PM but it should be whose actual value is 6/9/2014 9:24 pm.
How can I fix this?
When you consume a SOAP web service that uses xsd:dateTime, Visual Studio will always create the client proxy class using a DateTime.
If there is no offset in the data, the values will come across with DateTimeKind.Unspecified.
If instead of an offset, the Z specifier is sent, then the values will come through with DateTimeKind.Utc.
If there is any offset at all, then the values come through with DateTimeKind.Local. Even when the offset is zero. Whatever the offset is, it is applied, and then the value is converted to local time. Essentially, it calls .ToLocalTime() internally.
This kind of stinks, but the easiest way to deal with it is to convert back to UTC using .ToUniversalTime(), or convert to another time zone using the TimeZoneInfo object.
Thanks to the hidden "4th kind", you can safely convert from local back to UTC without ambiguity. (The offset from the original value will disambiguate.)
As far as I know, there is no way to get it to create a DateTimeOffset instead. That would be ideal. However, if you really want to dive deep, you may be able to get it to ignore the offset completely - though that's not necessarily the best idea.
Also, it's worth mentioning that if you were to try to create your own service and expose a DateTimeOffset type directly - you'd run into problems. There isn't a mapping from DateTimeOffset back to xsd:dateTime or any of the other XML Schema data types used by SOAP. Instead, you get a custom complex type in the schema, and the data doesn't get passed along at all. On the client, instead of receiving a System.DateTimeOffset, you get a YourServiceReference.DateTimeOffset object that doesn't do anything at all. It's unfortunate, because it should be great advice to use DateTimeOffset in a public-facing API, but it simply doesn't work. At least not for SOAP/XML. Things are much better in the REST/JSON world.
This is what I did, not sure if it's the efficient way..
I had different offset values for different time values and I don't know the timezone from the time field value... what I did is
I converted the time field value to string and got the offset using sub string and applied that to the UTC of time field value
TimeSpan offSetSpan = new TimeSpan();
string dt = TimestampValue;
string offset = TimestampValue.Substring(trackevent.Timestamp.Length - 6,6);
if (offset != "+00:00" && offset != "-00:00")
{
offSetSpan = TimeSpan.Parse(offset.Trim());
}
Console.WriteLine("Offset Timestamp: {0}", Convert.ToDateTime(TimestampValue).ToUniversalTime() + offSetSpan);

Convert javascript date time to C#/VB.NET date time

I want to get client timezone so i'm using the code below
function filltime()
{
document.getElementById("hdnTime").value = new Date();
}
conversion
Dim time As Date = DateTime.ParseExact(hdnTime.Value,
"ddd MMM d HH:mm:ss UTCzzzzz yyyy",InvariantCulture)
I'm not getting exact value. Its showing server time only.
But hdnTime.Value contains the correct value("Mon Feb 18 14:46:49 UTC+0530 2013"). I think the problem is with conversion.
What is the problem? How can I solve?
Dates and times are a pain in 1 language, let alone when passing a value between 2.
I'd recommend serializing the JavaScript Date() object into JSON before posting it back to the server. Then de-serializing it into a C# DateTime object using a library such as JSON.NET. There's comprehensive documentation (Serializing Dates in JSON) with regards to what settings can be applied when serializing and de-serializing.
JavaScript
function filltime()
{
document.getElementById("hdnTime").value = JSON.stringify(new Date());
}
JSON isn't native to every browser, so you mean need to manually load it in, for more information you can refer to: Browser-native JSON support (window.JSON)
C# using JSON.NET
DateTime dateTime = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DateTime>(hdnTime.Value);
You are confusing the DateTime object with its displaying
it is normal that you see the server time because you are seeing the datetime rappresentation with your current timezone.
What you don't get is how DateTime works...
If you pass a datetime with timezone info then it will be converted to your timezone with the right offset.
If you want to pass a datetime and get it as it is than you have to remove the timezone part.
In you situation, anyway, if you need only to know the client timezone just pass it!
var d = new Date()
var n = d.getTimezoneOffset();
The getTimezoneOffset() method returns the time difference between UTC time and local time, in minutes.
For example, If your time zone is GMT+2, -120 will be returned.
For general discussion:
in my experience the best way to deal with datetime converted as string and passed between different systems, is to use the ISODATE format:
DateTime.Now.ToString("s"); //"2013-02-18T11:17:24"

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