[XMLRPC-78] Configurable or UTC time zone for outgoing date values.

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: unspecified
• Component/s: Releases
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: James Baldassari
• Created: 19/Mar/06 12:30
• Updated: 12/Apr/06 06:01
• Resolved: 12/Apr/06 06:01

Description

It appears that the time zone for outgoing date values is always the local time zone of the server. This has recently caused a problem for me when I was creating some example XML-RPC programs for a class for which I am the teaching assistant. For my examples I created a Java client and server using the Apache XML-RPC library, as well as a C++ client and server using the xmlrpc-c library. The servers simply sent back a date value when their RPC handlers were invoked. The problem occurred when using the C++ client with the Java server or the Java client with the C++ server because the Apache library uses the local time zone, but the xmlrpc-c library uses UTC. I realize that the XML-RPC spec specifically states that the time zone cannot be assumed and that this library mixing scenario is probably not too common. However, I think that it would be a good enhancement to allow users to specify the time zone for outgoing date values as they can for incoming date values. An alternate solution would be to use UTC instead of the local time zone, and then the clients could convert the date values to their local time zone if desired.