How to interpret datetime as User's local timezone in Acumatica - acumatica

Question

We have a button "Start" that populates the dateStarted field to DateTime.Now..
When retrieving datetime, it always shows the server's date/time instead of user's local timezone version. How do i make it work like lastModifiedDateTime/CreatedDateTime that whenever we view it it's formatted as user's local timezone. I tried UseTimeZone = true/false but nothing is working
Here is my code that is not working
#region DateStarted
public abstract class dateStarted : PX.Data.IBqlField
{
}
protected DateTime? _DateStarted;
[PXDBDateAndTime(DisplayNameDate = "Date Started", DisplayNameTime = "Time", UseTimeZone = true)]
public virtual DateTime? DateStarted
{
get
{
return this._DateStarted;
}
set
{
this._DateStarted = value;
}
}
#endregion

Answer 1

It sounds like just using PX.Common.PXTimeZoneInfo.Now is enough to do the job.
PX.Common.PXTimeZoneInfo also has UtcNow, UtcToday, and Today if needed

Answer 2

Look up the code of class PXDBDateAndTime in Source Code screen SM204570. For debugging purpose you can copy the whole attribute and rename it to something else like PXDBDateAndTimeDebug:
[PXDBDateAndTimeDebug(DisplayNameDate = "Date Started", DisplayNameTime = "Time", UseTimeZone = true)]
With that approach you can debug SetUseTimeZone and GetTimeZone methods. The time zone used is coming from LocaleInfo.GetTimeZone method and you should debug that too:
public static PXTimeZoneInfo GetTimeZone()
{
if (!PXContext.PXIdentity.IsAnonymous() && PXContext.PXIdentity.TimeZone != null)
{
return PXContext.PXIdentity.TimeZone;
}
return PXTimeZoneInfo.Invariant;
}
The issue here is that from your question we can't tell if there's actually a problem with Acumatica time zone handling or if the user profile time zone is properly configured in your instance or if the result you're expecting is actually a valid ISO conversion as done by the DotNet framework. Debugging step by step should reveal what's going on.

Answer 3

After analyzing how CreatedDateTime and LastModifiedDatetime and other dates behave the same, the problem is in the input. So i created the following code to save the correct datetime with regards to the current user's timezone.
public static class DateTimeHelper
{
public static DateTime? Now()
{
var test = LocaleInfo.GetTimeZone();
PXTimeZoneInfo timezone = LocaleInfo.GetTimeZone();
DateTime dt = DateTime.UtcNow;
dt = PXTimeZoneInfo.ConvertTimeFromUtc(dt, timezone);
return dt;
}
}
and the implementation:
public PXAction<CQLMChecklists> startButton;
[PXUIField(DisplayName = "Start", Visible = true)]
[PXButton()]
public virtual void StartButton()
{
if (Document.Current != null)
{
CQLMChecklists doc = Document.Current;
Actions.PressSave();
CommenceChecklist(DateTimeHelper.Now(), DateTimeHelper.Now().Value, ref doc);
Document.Update(doc);
}
Actions.PressSave();
}