[Rets-dev] Please clarify interpretation of Dates and Times

[Sergio Del Rio]

The specification clearly states that times in queries are to be transmitted
in GMT, it even qualifies the statement with MUST. Any server that does not
accept queries in GMT would not be compliant to the specification.  The
specification has never said that queries are supposed to be incoming in
local and returned in GMT, I am quite certain about this.

 

Regards,

Sergio Del Rio

Templates 4 Business Inc.

 

  _____  

From: rets-dev-bounces at rets.org [mailto:rets-dev-bounces at rets.org] On Behalf
Of JP Fielding
Sent: April 5, 2007 7:42 AM
To: Tony Manhollan
Cc: rets dev mailing list
Subject: Re: [Rets-dev] Please clarify interpretation of Dates and Times

 

thats what the spec says, what servers do seems quite different.  oddly
enough, i see some servers that take queries in local, and return in gmt
(the latter being a recommendation of the spec at one point, dont recall if
it still is).  im dont recall any off the top of my head that take queries
in gmt. 

morale of the story, verify what the server is _supposed_ to do with the
vendor, and then sanity test it.  the sanity test can be time consuming, but
necessary if you dont want over/underlap.  

On 4/5/07, Tony Manhollan <tony at realestatepointe.com> wrote:

Hi,

Could I get some clarification from the community on this please? Regarding
dates and times, section 7.7.2 of the RETS 1.5 spec says:

> All datetimes submitted in queries MUST be in GMT. All other dates or
times 
> are interpreted in host time.

I interpret this to mean any time I send to the server should be expressed
in GMT. Any time the server sends back is expressed in local time for the
server. Is this correct? And is host time meant to be the time where the 
server is located, or the time where the business operates whose data the
server hosts. E.g.: If software vendor X, located in California provides
services and hosting for MLS Y, located in New York, are times returned by 
the server in X's time zone, Pacific or Y's time zone, Eastern?

By my interpretation, to get all updates since my previous connection to a
server, I should record the time in GMT that my connection starts (say now, 
2007-04-05T14:10:00). The next time I connect, I should execute a query like
(ModificationTimeStamp=2007-04-05T14:10:00+). Would a query like that be
time-accurate? I don't want to miss updates, but I don't want a 5-hour 
overlap either. It appears the latter is happening on a server I'm trying to
sync with and I want to make sure I'm understanding that right.

Thanks.

Tony Manhollan
Realestatepointe.com

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