[sync] contact dates of birth are time-shifted by one day to the past when syncing from horde to mobile

[Michael J Rubinsky]

Quoting Simon Brereton <simon.buongiorno at gmail.com>:

> On 6 Apr 2013 15:38, "Michael J Rubinsky" <mrubinsk at horde.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Quoting "lists.horde.org at pqaudio.de" <lists.horde.org at pqaudio.de>:
>>
>>> Am 05.04.2013 21:51, schrieb Michael J Rubinsky:
>>>>
>>>> ..because the protocol *requires* all datetime fields to be
>>>> transmitted as UTC and the phone converts back to whatever timezone
>>>> the phone is set to use. The issue is with the protocol (or more
>>>> accurately, how 99% of clients interpret the protocol) - birthdays
>>>> occupy the entire day but the protocol is expected to transmit a full
>>>> datetime. This would be fine if both the client and the server would
>>>> agree on a specific time of day to always transmit a birthday e.g.,
>>>> 12:00 UTC... but they don't so what works for one client, in one
>>>> timezone, could be broken for the rest of the world.
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks again Mike. That clears up a few of my questions.
>>> But I need to get more into it, because i am still wondering why its
>>> working fine with calendar events but not birthdays.
>>> Thank you for your time.
>>
>>
>> It works for calendar events because they begin and end at a discreet
> time. Even "full day" events in the calendar have a defined start and end
> time - as well as a flag for indicating to the client that it's a full day
> event. Birthdays, on the other hand, have neither. This is way it's a
> problem that the protocol requires that the birthday be a full UTC datetime
> field (containing both the date and the time component) while it doesn't
> specify what specific time birthdays should set the time component to.
>
> Can the application not simply make the decision to put 00:00:00?

Yes. That's exactly what we do...and the cause of the problem. Since  
it's UTC, the client adjusts to the local/configured timezone.  
Depending on the timezone, the can cause the birthday to be shifted to  
a different calendar day.
-- 
mike

The Horde Project (www.horde.org)
mrubinsk at horde.org
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