Time zones changed when imported from EventBrite

[Bennie]

Hi,

I offer events around the world http://www.deepliving.com/events.

With EventBrite, we can specify the time zone of the start and end dates of events, but when imported into Events Calendar, the time zone gets offset – not sure if it converts the EventBrite to my PC time zone or what it does.

How do I get the EventsCal plugin to LEAVE the times as it is in EventBrite, so that is displays the time correctly?

Thanks
Bennie

[Barry]

Hi Bennie,

It converts the time to whatever is appropriate in light of your WordPress configuration. So if for instance you’ve configured WordPress to operate in PST (GMT-8) and you import an event taking place in EST (GMT-4) it will indeed adjust by 4hrs.

The reason for this, of course, is that without any adjustment events can either disappear prematurely from the upcoming events list (or, depending on the direction of the conversion, the opposite can take place and they can linger on past when they’ve expired in the target timezone).

Even so, we’re aware that some users like yourself would prefer we avoid making any conversions and the good news is we’re planning on making the conversion process optional 🙂

All things being equal – though I can’t offer a firm guarantee – this change should roll out in the next major release. Do note though that it’s quite likely a minor maintenance release will arrive before then and it is highly unlikely to be included within that.

I hope that helps 🙂

[Bennie]

Thanks Barry, I appreciate your detailed response

Try as I may (and despite having read your email numerous times) I cannot think of a single instance where it would be useful to convert the time zones.

Either way, I hear you that a solution is coming, which I eagerly await 🙂

Thanks
Bennie

[Barry]

Try as I may (and despite having read your email numerous times) I cannot think of a single instance where it would be useful to convert the time zones.

Well, just for illustration purposes (and in case it helps others coming across this topic):

8am GMT and 8am PST are of course two completely different times. Suppose your site is set to use the PST timezone and you import an event taking place at 8am GMT over in London.

If no conversion takes place and we import it as if it were taking place at 8am PST (so, 8hrs later than the true time) then it will continue to show in the main upcoming events list (plus other views/widgets) even after it has ended – pushing other current/future events further down the list or even onto other pages.

Switch that around and the reverse is true – if a London based blog imports an event actually taking place at 8am PST but imports it as if it were 8am GMT that will see the event vanishing from upcoming event lists 8hrs too early.

I agree that isn’t going to be ideal in every case but it’s actually something that was introduced in response to customer feedback (particularly concerning the second of the scenarios I described).

Either way, I hear you that a solution is coming, which I eagerly await

Absolutely, and I have linked this topic with the matching report on our internal issue tracker – so we’ll do our best to re-open this and post an update as and when work on this progresses.

Thanks again!

[Leah]

Hi there,

Thank you for your support and patience while we worked on this issue. We are happy announce that we have incorporated a fix into our upcoming 3.10 release. Keep an eye out for a release announcement on our site and for updates available on your WordPress dashboard.

While we have thoroughly tested this release and are confident of its quality, it is impossible to account for every edge case in the wide world of WordPress. If you run into trouble with the new version or you don’t see your reported issue corrected, please start a new thread and we will be happy to work with you.

Thanks again for your patience here. We’re excited to get this version out the door and into your hands!

Best,
The Events Calendar Team

[Leah]

Hello,

Thank you again for bringing this issue to our attention. We’re happy to say that we have added a fix for this into our upcoming version 3.11 release. Keep an eye on your Updates page for the new version. If you have any trouble with the update (or are still seeing this problem after you update) please start a new thread and we’d be happy to help out.

Thank you for your patience while we got this release ready to go!

Best,
Leah
and the rest of The Events Calendar team

[Author]

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