Calendar: Event with date-time stored in UTC are _shown_ translated to local time but _edited_ in UTC

[archont00]

Steps to reproduce

Let's assume that local time zone is Europe/Berlin (GMT+1).

1. Create an event in a client, which stores DATE-TIME in UTC, say 09:00 (UTC).
2. Look at the calendar view in nextcloud calendar app - the time is correctly shown as 10:00 (GMT+1)
3. Edit the even in nextcloud calendar app. The time is correctly shown as 09:00 with UTC as time zone.

Expected behaviour

With an event stored in a different time zone than the one the user uses, the app should:

• allow editing the time in user's local time zone
• or at least show both original time zone and local time zone time values.

aCalendar does it nicely:

(NB The user might have timezone info hidden in nextcloud calendar UI. This would lead to unexpected confusion/errors.)

Actual behaviour

The calendar app edits the time as per original time zone of event.

Other info

Event created in roundcube calendar

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Roundcube libcalendaring 1.4-git//Sabre//Sabre VObject 2.1.7//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:D80851E855CF1132D9CC0A48F31C33F3-44A014B8E8E6E4A8
DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181212T202955Z
CREATED;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181212T202852Z
LAST-MODIFIED;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181212T202852Z
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181215T090000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20181215T093000Z
SUMMARY:Test 10:00 GMT+1 created in RC
SEQUENCE:0
TRANSP:OPAQUE
CLASS:PUBLIC
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

Event displayed in Nextcloud calendar

Event edited in Nextcloud calendar

(Time zone info is hidden! However, if shown there is UTC.)

Event displayed in aCalendar on Android

Event edited in aCalendar on Android

Server configuration

Server version: 14.0.1

Calendar version: 1.6.3

Updated from an older installed version or fresh install: Updated continueously from nc 11.0

Client configuration

Browser: Firefox 63.0.1 64-bit

Operating system: Arch Linux

CalDAV-clients:

• Roundcube Mail Calendar (based on Kolab calendar).
• aCalendar (Android)
• MS Outlook (with a CalDAV sync client)

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[georgehrke]

If you click on the globe icon you will see the selected timezone and be able to change it.

But it would indeed be a nice improvement to show it in the timezone selected in the settings as well.

[archont00]

Thanks for a accepting the proposal.

There is another issue with the current implementation of timezone & time in the editor:

The user has to

a) change the time zone and
b) calculate the difference and adjust the time manually.

It might be better to have the app automatically change the time in accordance with the manual change of the time zone.

The only exception might be when the original time zone is "none" (hence "floating" local time).

[storyjesse]

+1
I'm from Australia and using nextcloud with a national group. We have 5 different timezones in Australia and while the event time is shown (translated to) my own timezone in the calendar view, as soon as I click on an event to see the details the event time is displayed in whatever timezone was set for the event. With online events such as Zoom calls this causes havock because User's assume the time displayed in their current default timezone.

Possible solutions I can think of are:

1. Change the timezone button display from a globe symbol
   to the Timezone abbreviation eg: [AEST]
2. Always display the time in the current user's timezone and "lock" the event's timezone either
   A) when it is created or
   B) to the user who created it. (so only the creating user can edit the event's timezone) All other users with edit permission can edit the time but it will always be displayed in their current timezone and they will not have the option to change the event's timezone.
3. I believe it would require much greater work but I think the most user friendly option would be to save the event with the initial timezone it is created with and then default to displaying and editing the event in the user's current timezone. Changing the timezone would then change the timezone the event is being edited in and when saving the event the time entered would be automatically converted to the event's timezone.

e.g.:

• I'm in Western Australia and create an event at 9am
  
  
  
  • The event is saved with the event timezone set to AWST
  
  
  • Someone in NSW edit's the event
  
  
  • The times displayed in all dialogues for this event show the event's time translated to AEST 11:00am
  
  
  • If the user clicks the icon the timezone will default to their current timezone AEST and changing it to ACST will adjust the times displayed accordingly to 10:00am
  
  
• The user then changes the time to 10:30am ACST and saved the event.
  
  
  
  • The new time 10:30 ACST is converted to the events original timezone AWST (9:30am) and saved.
  
  
• Back in Western Australia I then open the event as see that someone has changed the start time to 9:30 AWST.

It would still be best to change the icon to something that shows which timezone the times being displayed are in. Hovering a mouse over is too inconvenient.

[call-me-matt]

I stumbled over the same issue, after importing an event into my calendar. It is correctly shown for 6pm, but the popup displayed a different time. Took me a moment to figure out which time was the correct one. Seeing two different times next to each other is quite disturbing: