Make Scheduler Time Zone Aware

[rdoptis]

In larger organizations or organizations with global coverage, it is possible for users to be in different time zones from each other and the Alteryx server. 

WIth our implementation of Alteryx server, we have the server time zone set to that of our data warehouse, but this time zone is different than my own by -2 hours. In the case of scheduling a workflow in the future, I normally correct for this by setting the scheule in the time zone of the server and things work alright. 

Problem 1:

It falls apart is when I want to schedule something in the future, but it is within the timespan between my time zone and the server time zone. For example: It is 6PM my time, and 4PM server time. I want to schedule a workflow to run at 5PM server time (7PM my time). When I try to set this up with the Version 10 scheduler built into Alteryx desktop, it overides the date field upon saving to run the following day instead of today as it thinks im trying to schedule the run at a time that has already passed (which it has in my timezone, but not in the server time zone). Upon trying to edit this schedule to reset the date to today, it again reverts upon saving.  

The only way I have found to get around this is to reset the time zone of my computer to match the server time zone, then set the schedule, then reset the time zone of my machine back to local time again. This is not the best experience, and will likely be required more frequently for users as their time zone difference increases. 

Problem 2:

When wanting to run something server side immediately (I do this in cases where the runtime will be long, or im mobile and on a machine with a lower amount of processing resources) the "Once" option can be used in scheduler to push something to server and run it. In my case, due to the timezone difference, the default time set when trying to do this is the current time in my time zone, but 2 hours ahead of the current server time.

I have two proposed resolutions:

1) Transmit Server time zone information to the local scheduler to have everything involving scheduling in Server time. Also for any timestamp fields, include the time zone designation so its clear to the user.

2) Use information from the user's machine and information from the server to do timezone conversions behind the scenes so whenever scheduling or viewing schedules, all timestamps are in local time to the user. I feel this is the prefered solution for the best user experience, but would also be the more complex to implement. 

Thanks,

Ryan

[StephenR]

This is especially difficult when you have offices across multiple timezones.

[SW618]

My situation is the server is located in MST and I am located in CST. So the server time zone is one hour behind me.

From the gallery, if I tried to schedule the workflow to run a minute from current time to test the scheduler, it will save the time as 1 hr and 1 minute from now. If I tried to adjust the time to 1 hour earlier to run according to the server time, I will get an error message that "selected start date is in the past" and won't let me save the schedule.

So, the problems are:

1. Workflow schedules are based on server time zone.

2. When you schedule the workflow from the gallery (browser), it validates against your local time zone.

Please fix this as we are a global company with people spread out all over the globe. Time zone awareness is an important functional requirements for all our applications. When we build our apps, All time elements are stored as UTC. Client side time selection (browser) are translated into UTC before sending to the server. Not rocket science.

[AshwiniChezhiyan]

It would be even better if we could add time zones + indicator whether we need the schedule to be updated based on Daylight Saving as well. We have seen instances where scheduled reports need to be manually re-adjusted when the daylight saving starts/stops.

[AshwiniChezhiyan]

One more minor enhancement: It would be even better if we could add time zones + indicator whether we need the schedule to be updated based on Daylight Saving --> we have seen instances where scheduled reports need to be manually re-adjusted when the daylight saving starts/stops.

[SeanAdams]

This issue has one more complexity - the start time on the job is listed in the timezone of the controller.    The finish time is listed in the timezone of the worker.    Given that we've got worker nodes in different timezones for BCP reasons - this creates the situation where some of our jobs finish several hours before they start (according to the logs).

Agree with this full thread - TimeZones are key.

[jm_idm]

Since this was originally posted in October 2015, has this been addressed yet?  

[mlittletn]

This timezone behavior also causes issues when trying to schedule via gallery for a time that will run within the next hour. Currently I'm located in EST. My server is in CST. If the current time is 7:30am EST and I want to schedule a workflow to run at 8am EST; I would need to set the schedule to be today @ 7am due to the server being CST. Gallery won't allow this b/c it states the scheduled time is in the past. Only workaround I found is to temporarily change the timezone in windows to fool the web page to thinking the time is now in the future.

[mlittletn]

Please fix!

[bhushv02]

Hi,

Did this get resolve ? we have alteryx version 2018.3.4.51585 and facing the same issue.

Adding to it, when i am logging to gallery from personal computer (different time zone than server) with Admin account, i can see the time zone according to server. However when i am logging to gallery as Artisan user  it is displaying local time zone according to computer.

Attached is the screenshot for your reference.

As Admin userAs Artisian user

Could you please help on this.

Thanks,

Bhushan

[TimGarstin1]

Ditto, please fix!