from the mailing list

>I was wondering how you can change the time zones? I am situated in
> Australia and want to set it up for the zones over here. Does anyone know
> how I can do this or can point me in the right direction?


You need to change the LSTimeZones Defaults, eg:
Defaults write OpenGroupware LSTimeZones "(AST,GMT,PST,MET)"
What timezones do you have in
Australia, probably more than one ? Might be that we need to add some
timezone descriptions to libFoundation.

Location of timezone definitions for OpenGroupware.org

The timezone definitions are part of libFoundation and are installed into

/usr/local/share/libFoundation/TimeZoneInfo/

-bash-2.05b$ pwd
/usr/local/share/libFoundation/TimeZoneInfo

Time Zone definition files

[root@arc-rj-10k-01 TimeZoneInfo]# ls
Africa/     GMT-10     GMT-3     GMT-7_30   Poland
Asia/       GMT+10     GMT+3     GMT+7_30   PST8PDT
Australia/  GMT-10_30  GMT-3_30  GMT-8      RegionsDictionary
Brasil/     GMT+10_30  GMT+3_30  GMT+8      
Canada/     GMT-11     GMT-4     GMT-8_30   
CET         GMT+11     GMT+4     GMT+8_30   SAST
CLST        GMT-11_30  GMT-4_30  GMT-9      SGT
CST6CDT     GMT+11_30  GMT+4_30  GMT+9      Singapore
EET         GMT-12     GMT-5     GMT-9_30   SystemV/
EST         GMT+12     GMT+5     GMT+9_30   Turkey
EST5EDT     GMT+13     GMT-5_30  Greenwich  UCT
Europe/     GMT-1_30   GMT+5_30  HST        Universal
GB-Eire     GMT+1_30   GMT-6     Iceland    US/
GMT         GMT+14     GMT+6     Japan      UTC
GMT-0_30    GMT-2      GMT-6_30  MET        WET
GMT+0_30    GMT+2      GMT+6_30  MST        W-SU
GMT-1       GMT-2_30   GMT-7     MST7MDT
GMT+1       GMT+2_30   GMT+7     NZ

The sample above is useful when the time zone has a known name (MET, AST, GMT, etc... ).

To set the time zone at GMT-3, GMT-2, GMT-1, GMT :

For both OpenGroupware and Zidestore, use NSGlobalDomain...

Defaults write NSGlobalDomain LSTimeZones "(GMT-0300,GMT-0200,GMT-0100,GMT)"

Defaults write ogo-webui-1.0a LSTimeZones "(GMT-0300,GMT-0200,GMT-0100,GMT)"
Defaults write ogo-zidestore-1.3 LSTimeZones "(GMT-0300,GMT-0200,GMT-0100,GMT)"

Note that the value "GMT-0300" is NOT the file GMT-3 in the /TimeZone directory, but the actual time zone name. The correspondence between the time zone name and the files above is given by the file "RegionDictionary" in the directory above.

Adding new Time Zones to OpenGroupware.org

As an example, we will add Brazil timezones to OpenGroupware:

The time zone matter in Brazil is not so often used. For historical reasons, the largest part of the country GNP is by far, under Brasilia time zone (GMT-3). The other time zones are in remote regions with scarse population. Time zones names are thus more related to regions rather than international abbreviations. We will then use Brasilia, Nordeste, Amazônia and Acre as names for our Brazilian time zones. That will make our local OpenGroupware.org users life easier.

Brazil's timezones official references (in portuguese) can be found here:

Source: Brazil National Observatory.

Source: Brazil States vs time zones.

Source: Daylight saving time (DST) in Brazil.

Source: Brazil States map vs Time zones.

Timezone name	GMT offset
Brasilia:	GMT-3
Nordeste:	GMT-3
Amazonia:	GMT-4
Acre:	GMT-5

You must log in as root, and follow the steps:

1. go to /usr/local/share/libFoundation/TimeZoneInfo/

2. Create a sub-directory named Brasil to hold Brazil regions files

   mkdir Brasil
   
   cd Brasil
   

3. Create a file named Brasilia, with the contents below:
   

   [root@opengroupware Brasil]# cat Brasilia
   {
   details = {
              Brasilia  = {abbrev = "Brasilia"; isDST = 0; offset = "-3:00:00"; };
              BrasiliaHV = {abbrev = "BrasiliaHV"; isDST = 1; offset = "-2:00:00"; };
             };
   rules = (
             {
   /* 2004 */
               startDate = "Thu Jan 01 02:00:00 2004 GMT";
               endDate = "Fri Dec 31 02:00:00 2004 GMT";
               transitions = (
                   { date = "February/third Sunday/02:00:00"; detail = Brasilia; },
                   { date = "November/first Tuesday/02:00:00"; detail = BrasiliaHV; }
                           );
              },
   /* 2005 */
             {
               startDate = "Sat Jan 01 02:00:00 2005 GMT";
               endDate = "Sat Dec 31 02:00:00 2005 GMT";
               transitions = (
                   { date = "February/third Sunday/02:00:00"; detail = Brasilia; },
   /* to be confirmed: */
                   { date = "October/third Sunday/02:00:00"; detail = BrasiliaHV; }
                           );
             }
            );
   }
   

4. Hacking a little (got no answer from Google on the exact meaning of the content of this file...), my best guess so far is:
   1. Brasilia and BrasiliaHV reference for transition below.
   2. abbrev is the name that will appear at session expiration in the web interface and in the Agenda timezone pull-down menu. This name must match one entry in the "Abbreviation" part of file RegionDictionary, and must not contain accented letters (OpenGroupware will not complain but will miscalculate your time and date).
   3. isDST is a flag to signal DST state and offset is the GMT offset of the time zone with its DST value.
   4. rules: startDate is a string defining a date where the rule start to apply, endDate, is the end date of the rule. Note that the example given applies only to 2004 & 2005.
   5. transition: specify the dates to switch DST on and off. Parameter "detail" refers to the detail on top.

5. Do the same for files "Acre", "Amazonia" and "Nordeste", with the proper timezone shift (parameter "offset").
   Other files in directory Australia/ seems to have more information. Unfortunately, there is no algebraic rule for DST exact dates in Brazil (issued by Government decree, only weeks before it get effective), but usually Brazil's DST start mid October and ends mid February.

6. NOTE Northern regions in Brazil (Acre, Amazonia and Nordeste) will not have a DST in 2004-2005. This is becasue DST is almost useless when one lives close to the Equator, and to avoid the annoyance of waking up hours before sunrise, DST will not apply there.

7. Edit file RegionsDictionary and add the following lines near "Abbreviations". In this part of the file, the time zones abbreviations will map to the regions files.

   	GMT = GMT;
           "GMT+0100" = "GMT+1";
   	"GMT+0200" = "GMT+2";
           "GMT+0300" = 	"GMT+3"; 
           Brasilia   = "Brasil/Brasilia";
           BrasiliaHV   = "Brasil/Brasilia";
           Nordeste   = "Brasil/Nordeste";
           Amazonia   = "Brasil/Amazonia";
           Acre       = "Brasil/Acre";
   	"GMT+0400" = "GMT+4";
           "GMT+0500" = "GMT+5";
           "GMT+0600" = "GMT+6";
   
   

8. Edit the same file near RegionsByOffset. In this part of the file, the time zone offset will map to the regions files.

   	RegionsByOffset = {
   (snip)
   	"-0600" = (
           "GMT-6",
           "US/Central",
   	"Canada/Central",
           "Canada/East-Saskatchewan",
   	"CST6CDT"
           );
           "-0500" = ("GMT-5","US/Eastern", "US/East-Indiana", "Canada/Eastern", "Brasil/Acre");
   	"-0400" = ("GMT-4", "Canada/Atlantic",EST, "EST5EDT","Brasil/Amazonia");
           "-0330" = ("Canada/Newfoundland");
           "-0300" = ("GMT-3", "Brasil/Brasilia", "Brasil/Nordeste");
           "-0200" = ("GMT-2");
           "-0100" = ("GMT-1");
   (snip)
   

9. Stop OpenGroupware server

   # service ogo-webui-1.0a stop

10. log in as opengroupware

    # su – ogo

11. Issue the new time zone Defaults

       
    Defaults write NSGlobalDomain LSTimeZones "(Acre, Amazonia, Nordeste, Brasilia)"
    
    or
    
    Defaults write ogo-webui-1.0a LSTimeZones "(Acre, Amazonia, Nordeste, Brasilia)"
    Defaults write ogo-zidestore-1.3 LSTimeZones "(Acre, Amazonia, Nordeste, Brasilia)"
    

12. Exit user ogo and return to user root, then start opengroupware service:

    # service ogo-webui-1.0a restart

Voilà!

New time zones should appear in the WebUI. Go to Preferences - Display.

Content of Nordeste, Amazonia and Acre files:

cat Nordeste
{
details = {
           Nordeste = {abbrev = "Nordeste"; isDST = 0; offset = "-3:00:00"; };
          };
}

cat Amazonia
{
details = {
           Amazonia = {abbrev = "Amazonia"; isDST = 0; offset = "-4:00:00"; };
          };
}

cat Acre
{
details = {
           Acre  = {abbrev = "Acre"; isDST = 0; offset = "-5:00:00"; };
          };
}