How to convert server time to local time in Laravel? - php

Question

I would like to print the time in local time in Laravel. If the user create a post it will display the created time on the server. How can I display it in local time ?
In my blade file I used this code to display created time,
{{{ $posts->updated_at }}}
Which displays the time in database, which is a server time. How can I convert it to users local time ?

Answer 1

I found a solution to convert time to local time by using session. The current time zone offset will store on session to calculate users time. Create a jquery post function to post users timezone offset to session. This is my code,
default.blade.php
#if($current_time_zone=Session::get('current_time_zone'))#endif
<input type="hidden" id="hd_current_time_zone" value="{{{$current_time_zone}}}">
// For assigning session value to hidden field.
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
if($('#hd_current_time_zone').val() ==""){ // Check for hidden field is empty. if is it empty only execute the post function
var current_date = new Date();
curent_zone = -current_date.getTimezoneOffset() * 60;
var token = "{{csrf_token()}}";
$.ajax({
method: "POST",
url: "{{URL::to('ajax/set_current_time_zone/')}}",
data: { '_token':token, curent_zone: curent_zone }
}).done(function( data ){
});
}
});
routes.php
Route::post('ajax/set_current_time_zone', array('as' => 'ajaxsetcurrenttimezone','uses' => 'HomeController#setCurrentTimeZone'));
HomeController.php
public function setCurrentTimeZone(){ //To set the current timezone offset in session
$input = Input::all();
if(!empty($input)){
$current_time_zone = Input::get('curent_zone');
Session::put('current_time_zone', $current_time_zone);
}
}
Helpers/helper.php
function niceShort($attr) {
if(Session::has('current_time_zone')){
$current_time_zone = Session::get('current_time_zone');
$utc = strtotime($attr)-date('Z'); // Convert the time zone to GMT 0. If the server time is what ever no problem.
$attr = $utc+$current_time_zone; // Convert the time to local time
$attr = date("Y-m-d H:i:s", $attr);
}
return attr;
}
index.blade.php
{{ niceShort($posts->updated_at) }}
Now we can print the time in clients time zone. The time zone setting code run only when the session empty.

Answer 2

You can do this by using javascript. Use following libraries:
moment.min.js (http://momentjs.com/downloads/moment.js)
moment-timezone-with-data.js ()
jstz.min.js (https://bitbucket.org/pellepim/jstimezonedetect)
Here is the code :
var update_at = '<?php echo $posts->updated_at;?>'; //set js variable for updated_at
var serverTimezone = 'YOUR SERVER TIME ZONE'; //set js variable for server timezone
var momentJsTimeObj = moment.tz(update_at, serverTimezone); //create moment js time object for server time
var localTimeZone = jstz.determine(); //this will fetch user's timezone
var localTime = momentJsTimeObj.clone().tz(localTimeZone.name()).format(); //convert server time to local time of user
Now you can display local time through js

Answer 3

Try this method, I think this is what you want:
$localTime = $object->created_at->timezone($this->auth->user()->timezone);
Here, $this->auth->user()->timezone will return current user's timezone, and timezone() will convert created_at to to user's local time.
If you want to get all visitors timezone (not just logged in users), you can you package for Laravel similar to laravel-geoip. It will generate $visitor['timezone'] for you which you can use like this:
$localTime = $object->created_at->timezone($visitor['timezone']);

Answer 4

Best option is to do this with Javascript, get client's timezone and then convert server time to cleint's accordingly.
Please refer https://stackoverflow.com/a/1837243/4007628

Answer 5

Try this:
$dt = new DateTime($posts->updated_at);
$tz = new DateTimeZone('Asia/Kolkata'); // or whatever zone you're after
$dt->setTimezone($tz);
echo $dt->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

Answer 6

Go to app.php page in Config folder and change this
'timezone' => 'UTC',
to
'timezone' => 'addYourTimeZoneHere',
reference
https://laravel.com/docs/5.5/configuration
find your timezone
http://php.net/manual/en/timezones.php

Answer 7

Server time should stick with UTC timezone
In front end, you can use moment.js to render the correct local timezone. I tested this in moment version 2.22.2.
Simply add Z to the datetime value and moment will render the date to user's local time zone
moment(dateTimeValue + ' Z');

Answer 8

Comment the timezone settings in app.php page
//'timezone' => 'UTC',