Annoying javascript timezone adjustment issue
ajax, iso8601, javascript, json
Solution
Everything is fine, try this:
new Date(Date.parse("2011-10-02T23:00+02:00")).getUTCHours() //21
The date is parsed correctly (taking the timezone into account as expected). However when you simply print `Date.toString()` it shows the date in current browser timezone (one of the sins of Java `Date` object shamelessly copied to JavaScript...)
If you stick to `getUTC*()` family of methods you will get correct values (like in example above). The ordinary `get*()` methods are always affected by browser timezone (and not the timezone from the date you parsed, which is lost), hence often useless.
Another example: the 2011-10-03 02:00+03:00 is actually 23:00 on 2nd of October. But when you parse it (my current browser time zone is +0200 (CEST)):
new Date(Date.parse("2011-10-03T02:00+03:00")) //Oct 03 01:00:00 GMT+0200
However current day of month in UTC is:
new Date(Date.parse("2011-10-03T02:00+03:00")).getUTCDate() //2 (2nd of Oct)
Problem
I have set up a JSON endpoint that returns the current time from server. For example: ``` { "myservertime": "2011-10-02T23:00+02:00" } ``` So this is the CET summer time right now. Now, I also have a jQuery code that parses that very well. ``` $.sysTime = function(success) { $.ajax({ url: '/jsontimepath/', dataType: 'json', async: false, success: function(json){ sysDateTime = new Date(Date.parse(json.myservertime)); console.log('The system time now is: ' + sysDateTime) } }); return sysDateTime; }; ``` The problem is that when I check the console, it still shows wrong time... It is still affected by the timezone of my computer... For example, for a user in Hong Kong, the time quoted above would result: Mon Oct 03 2011 05:00:00 GMT+0800 (HKT) I do give it a valid ISO8601 time string and it just adjusts it. The actual time that is returned is correct (in that timezone)... But why does it adjust it like that??? I want it to return CET time not the local time...