Setting up relative date-time

A relative date-time is a date-time that is not bound to any time zone. A relative date-time, in isolation, looks the same no matter where it is viewed in any time zone. However, once it is bound to a context in a particular time zone, it virtually becomes a fixed date-time. This is different from a regular fixed date-time, which is a point in time beyond the epoch, January 1, 1970 00:00 UTC. Depending on the time-zone perspective, the fixed date-time could look different while still representing the same point in time.

For example, let's consider a relative date-time with the New Year’s beginning time to be January 1, 2022 00:00. This does not represent a fixed point in time. This same relative New Year’s beginning time can be used by two resources to represent the same date-time in two different time zones, but they are actually two different fixed date-times. The benefit of a relative date-time is that an administrator can define it one time while reusing it in multiple places.

As another example, an administrator may set up a "US Holiday" calendar which has New Year's Day, Presidents' Day, Thanksgiving Day, etc. Since the US covers many time zones, the administrator can set up the "US Holiday" calendar one time and reuse it for resources in a variety of time zones. At runtime, a relative date-time that is used in the context of any particular resource is considered bound or fixed to the time zone of that context.

Any date-time field can be set as relative by selecting the Relative check box in the date-time field properties of the Data Modeler.

No matter where the context is, the time zone is populated from the field named triTimeZonesCL, which is assumed to be on the context record. If no such triTimeZonesCL field is found, then the relative date-times is bound to the user's time zone.

a. Use Case 1

A Reserve administrator configures a holiday calendar that is viewed by other Reserve administrators in different time zones. For example:

• The first Reserve administrator creates a "relative" New Year's Day holiday from 1/1/2022 12 AM to 1/2/2022 12 AM.
• The first Reserve administrator enters the event start date-time of 1/1/2022 12 AM and event end date-time of 1/2/2022 12 AM.
• When the events are being viewed or managed outside any particular resource, the dates are displayed exactly how they were originally entered.
• If a second Reserve administrator who is based in Eastern Standard Time (EST) views the data, he sees that the event starts at 1/1/2022 12 AM and ends at 1/2/2022 12 AM.
• If a third Reserve administrator who is based in Pacific Standard Time (PST) views the data, she sees that the event starts at 1/1/2022 12 AM and ends at 1/2/2022 12 AM.

b. Use Case 2

An Eastern Standard Time (EST) user views the relative date-time for an EST room. For example:

• Consider the same "relative" New Year's Day holiday that was configured in Use Case 1, where the same holiday calendar is being used for an EST room.
• In this case, a user who is based in Eastern Standard Time (EST) views the holiday calendar in the context of a room that is also based in EST.
• The user sees that the event starts at 1/1/2022 12 AM EST and ends at 1/2/2022 12 AM EST.

c. Use Case 3

A Pacific Standard Time (PST) user views the relative date-time for an EST room. For example:

• Consider the same "relative" New Year's Day holiday that was configured in Use Case 1, where the same holiday calendar is being used for an EST room.
• In this case, a user who is based in Pacific Standard Time (PST) views the holiday calendar in the context of a room that is based in Eastern Standard Time (EST).
• The user sees that the event starts at 12/31/2021 9 PM PST and ends at 1/1/2022 9 PM PST.
• The relative values 1/1/2022 12 AM and 1/2/2022 12 AM are now bound to a resource, specifically, the room that is based in EST. This means those date-times are no longer considered relative when used. They are now fixed points in time: 1/1/2022 12 AM EST and 1/2/2022 12 AM EST. However, the PST user still sees all events displayed in PST. As a result, the PST user sees that the event starts at 12/31/2021 9 PM PST and ends at 1/1/2022 9 PM PST.