[drupal-devel] [feature] _system_zonelist should return locale names

[jjeff]

Issue status update for http://drupal.org/node/21343

 Project:      Drupal
 Version:      cvs
 Component:    system.module
 Category:     feature requests
 Priority:     normal
 Assigned to:  Anonymous
 Reported by:  crunchywelch
 Updated by:   jjeff
 Status:       patch

I'd like to see this in the core.


1) Much better usability for anyone needing to choose time zone.
2) It would be nice to have this standardized accross all Drupal
modules and not leave each module developer trying to find the
associated name for each time zone. (I've done it once myself).


One of Drupal's great strengths is it's internationalization. With
internationalization comes time zone issues. And we who are further
from the meridian often don't know our offset other than "Eastern",
"Central", "Mountain", or "Pacific".


But it looks like the patch does away with the numerical listing
altogether. My preference would be for the array values to contain the
numerical version of the timezone offset as well. Example:


-6 => t('US Central (-6)')


-Jeff




jjeff



Previous comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 26, 2005 - 00:59 : crunchywelch

Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/system_6.patch (4.87 KB)

This patch adds locale names to the timezone offsets provided by
system.module.


Currently, the function returns an array with offsets for keys and
formatted 'local' times for the values. With this patch, the function
will return an associative array with two keys 'times' and 'locales'. 
Each key has an array with the offset values for keys, and thier
associated local time value, or locale name.


This patch provides a standard place to retrieve timezone values when
developing with them, improves useability when displaying timezone
select boxes, and updates the timezone offset values. This patch will
be utilized immediately by event.module, which currently uses an almost
equivelant function, event_zonelist.




------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 26, 2005 - 11:17 : Dries

Does anyone thinks is worth including in core?  If it is only useful for
one or two modules (eg. the event module), it would be easy enough to
include this table in those modules.




------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 26, 2005 - 12:01 : killes at www.drop.org

Yes, I think this patch is usefull. It makes the time zone selector
better readable and improves usability. This selector is used for both
the cetral system time and the user's time zone (if that is enabled).




------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 26, 2005 - 13:08 : TDobes

It might be nice to have a more readable timezone list, but this might
cause some users to assume that Drupal deals with daylight savings
time.  For example, the majority of the "US Central" timezone (where I
live) switches for DST, so I would expect that, to most people, "US
Central" means "Central Prevailing Time" (CST or CDT depending on the
time of the year).  I can say for certain that, had I not previously
seen the code, this would be confusing to me.  On the other hand, the
numeric values (as we have now), suggest that a constant offset from
GMT is used.


If we really want to include these named timezones, I think we should
mention or indicate in some way that Drupal does not deal with DST. 
It's unfortunate that implementing international DST is so complicated.


So... I don't mind the named timezones, but I think that, if we do
commit this patch, it should be indicated in the UI that Drupal will
not adjust its clock automatically for daylight savings.




------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 26, 2005 - 13:56 : tostinni

IMHO, I pretty like the way windows defines the time zone, it allows
various choices (I guess regarding of the daylight savings) for each
timezone. Also it gaves cities as reference, because here in Mexico,
I'm not sure that everybody knows that we are in US Central time zone
;)


Worth the include in core, but maybe with a little more precision.