Timezones not getting applied correctly for the event locations

[hikeitbaby]

The Events Calendar has an option for “Use local timezones for each event”, which as I understand it means that the timezone should be set for the timezone for where an event is hosted, right? On our staging site (http://hikeitnew.staging.wpengine.com/find-a-hike/submit-a-hike/add), I’ve enabled this option, but that data doesn’t seem to be saved properly. Our site includes a modified template of Community Events, so we’re not asking people to specifically state the timezone, as we thought it would be generated from the event location.

If this isn’t how it’s supposed to work, could you please explain that? Thanks!

I’ve read over the documentation at https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/working-with-timezones/ and it just doesn’t address this well enough when using Community Events.

In order to test out the functionality, I created a brand new site with only events calendar plugins and the Twenty Sixteen theme.
You can create a hike here: http://americanhiking.wpengine.com/events/community/add/
and you can see at this hike, http://americanhiking.wpengine.com/event/another-michigan-hike/, that since I didn’t specify a timezone it’s just showing up as UTC+0

[Andras]

Hello hikeitbaby,

Thanks for reaching out with your question regarding the timezones in community events.

For the time being the timezone is not generated automatically from the event location. It needs to be set up manually by the event poster in the timezone dropdown. The default value of that dropdown is UTC, so that is why they all show up like that.

You are right in saying that the default timezone value is not addressed well enough. I’ll bring this up internally on our next meeting.

Is there anything else I can help you with?

Cheers,
Andras

[Andras]

Hello again,

I apologize, I got mixed up a bit. 🙂 Let’s forget about the previous answer and re-start… :blush:

One thing is true, the timezone is not taken from the Venue / Event Location for sure.

But that dropdown should indeed take over the WordPress timezone setting. So it should show whatever is set under Dashboard > Settings > General > Timezone

You mentioned that you use a modified template. Would it be possible to test it with the original template and check whether the dropdown is showing the same as you have in the above setting?

Also, to be able to give you full support, I would like to ask you to share with me your system information in a private reply. Here’s a guide for that:
https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/sharing-sys-info/

Thanks and cheers,
Andras

[hikeitbaby]

Well if “the timezone is not taken from the Venue / Event Location for sure” then the option of “Use local timezones for each event” might better be worded as “Use manually entered timezones for each event”. Just sayin’, that part about ‘local’ implies some things I don’t think it’s supposed to.

You’re right, once I revert to the basic Twenty Sixteen theme and confirm my sitewide settings, I’m getting Los Angeles showing up in the CE form.

As a sidenote, It’d be great if instead of having these cities, the WP timezone array included PST, Eastern Standard, etc. Do you know any way to over-ride those so we give our users a much smaller set of options. Trying to find a city in your timezone can be a little time consuming.

[Andras]

Hey hikeitbaby,

That’s a fair suggestion, it gives place for some misunderstanding. Thanks for bringing it up. I’ll flag it on our next team meeting.

Unfortunately I don’t know any way to override those timezone settings. And as a personal opinion, I believe GMT based timezones like PST could be more confusing because of the daylight saving time that kicks in (and out) on different dates around the world. That is why you see UTC zones in the list, as that is constant, not influenced by daylight saving. And the cities in the list are sortof GMT based and they all do take into account the daylight saving time changes. E.g. if you choose New York, then the system knows on which date DST kicks in and out and uses it accordingly.

I hope this clarifies. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Cheers,
Andras

[hikeitbaby]

Thank you Andras. I appreciate your help here and I hope our conversation helps with the development of this great tool.

[Andras]

You are very welcome and thank you for your kind words!

Indeed it does help a lot. We value any and all feedback from our users.

When you develop something you have an idea how you want to do it, but at the end the users might want something different. This is where user feedback helps a lot, helps us make a better product. So, thank you again!

Since this is resolved I am going to close this ticket, but if you need anything else related to this topic or another please post a new one in the forum and we can help you out.

Cheers,
Andras

PS: If you like our plugin, we would be happy to receive a review in the wordpress.org repository. Thanks!
https://wordpress.org/support/view/plugin-reviews/the-events-calendar

PS2: We’d be also grateful if you would give us feedback on your satisfaction with support. Just click on one of the classy looking emojis below. 🙂 If you can spare a few words, that’s even better. Doublethanks!

[Victor]

Hi There!

Just wanted to share with you that a new release of our plugins is out, including a change in the wording for the timezone to “Use manually entered timezones for each event” 🙂

Find out more about this release → https://theeventscalendar.com/maintenance-release-week-17-june-2018/

We apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience while we worked on this.

Don’t hesitate to open a new topic if anything comes up.

Best,
Victor

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