I’m trying to figure out how to handle dates and times for events that will span multiple time zones. Most of the events will take place in the Pacific Time Zone (PT) and the Central Time Zone (CT).
I have it set up so that the event start date/time is set with the entry date field, and the end date/time is set with the expiration date field. I like that this allows the entry author to set the expiration date and end date/time in one field, since they will be the same anyway.
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An example of when this become problematic:
The author is in CT. She’s creating an event that occurs in PT. The event begins on December 31, 2011 at 8pm and ends on January 1, 2012 at 1am. In order for these times to be displayed correctly on the front-end, the author will set the entry date to December 31, 2011 at 8pm and the expiration date to January 1, 2012 at 1am.
Because her localization settings are for CT, the entry will expire at 11pm on December 31, 2011 PT. Attendees will not be able to access the entry for the map/directions/info/etc.
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Is there a better way to handle this? I’d prefer that the author not have to set the expiration date and event end time separately, if possible. If she did have to set them separately, she’d also have to think about differing time zones, which leaves too much room for error and isn’t very good UX.