[RFC|Merged] Switch to PHP timezone handling

[ToonArmy]

Anybody got a bright idea on how to present the timezone list for users to chose, there are like 500 timezones known to PHP just dropping them all in a drop down would be crazy.

[Erik Frèrejean]

Something like on php.net? (http://php.net/manual/en/timezones.php).
First a continent selector and based upon that display a drop down with the timezones in that continent, that would make the amount of items usable. You could do that through a bit of javascript so that users with js turned off get the whole list.

[ToonArmy]

America still has somewhere in the region of 150 timezones on it's own.

[EXreaction]

You could maybe use categories and some javascript.

• North America
• South America
• Europe
• Asia
• Africa
• Antartica

North America

• Canada
• United States
• Mexico
• Other

North America > United States

• Pacific
• Central
• Eastern

North America > United States > Central

• Chicago
• Detrioit
• etc

North America > United States > Central > Chicago

There would be the navigation links and selection box below it. The clicking on the navigation links would bring you back to that category.

I am not sure how much info you can get from the user's browser of the timezone, but autoselecting would be fantastic.

[ToonArmy]

You could maybe use categories and some javascript.

I was hoping to avoid categorising them myself.

I am not sure how much info you can get from the user's browser of the timezone, but autoselecting would be fantastic.

Javascript will give you an offset not a timezone.

[EXreaction]

With an offset you'd have to give the ability to list locations by their offset to let the user select.

[ToonArmy]

With an offset you'd have to give the ability to list locations by their offset to let the user select.

Interesting thought, shall investigate.

[nickvergessen]

I don't really like the idea, of guessing by some browser-staff where the user comes from.

I'd go with some kind of pop up?
I implemented this:

On the UCP screen there's a little link which opens the popup, the timezone is written to an input field.

step 0.png

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The first page of the popup contains the "categories":

step 1.png (34.53 KiB) Viewed 18903 times

When you click on one of them, the category is opened:

step 2.png

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If you than click on a timezone the name is inserted in the input field.

phpbb would than verify, that the timezone is valid

Code: Select all

in_array(request_var('timezone', ''), DateTimeZone::listIdentifiers())

and you're done

[rxu]

I wouldn't even try to list all available timezones regardless of using categories/etc, since at least 1) it's pain to make such a simple action to involve several steps to go and 2) supported timezones list could vary from release to release.
Instead of it, I'd restrict selection with some general timezones list (like we already have for instance) and put a link to the List of supported timezones, making possible to set it custom with a text field (similar to date format adjustment we already have) by entering the timezone value directly.

[Nelsaidi]

Errr, if I signed up to a forum and saw a massive list to go through I wouldnt be bothered, you want to give users a small presentable list. Narrowing it down by JS/GeoIP is a good idea, but its too much to ask for users to do all that.

Whilst technically better, do most users realise the difference between current timezone and the proposed system? I only found out after I read an article on PHP dates, then again becoming more accurate is a goal.