SDK/C# Timezone offset applied twice when saving a local time into a datetime field on CRM online.

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I made a very simple program to demonstrate the problem as simply as possible to myself, and eliminate as many variable as possible.

it connects to Crm with a given user, lets say: bob

bob's timezone is set to CET (currently 2+ offset from UTC as its summer time)

my own computer, where the program runs is also set to CET.

My program does the following:

as bob, it retrieve a entity
it fills a datefield on the entity like so: entitie["datefield"] = DateTime.now
update entity back to CRM.
and retrieve entity again from CRM and checks the date (the raw UTC value, not the formatted one)

The date is now not the expected 2 hours behind local time, but 4 hours.

The value displayed to the user is therefor 2 hours behind what's expected.

Changing bobs timezone in CRM to +4 (Baku) and running the program again:

results in 6 hours offset instead of 2

Setting my computer timezone to +8 (Beijing):

Results in a offset of 12 instead of 2.

so it seems to apply both the local computer's offset where the code runs, AND the user's configured timezone's offset!

I can understand it adjusting for either the PC's local time, OR the users timezone, either one would have made at least some sort of sense.

but not both right?

Can anyone help me and explain whats going on? And is there a way to save local time and have it end up correct? (We do this extensively throughout or code it would be a time consuming to adjust it all)

our on premise installation doesn't have this problem, despite both the user and the server being set to CET.

Crm: (versie 1612 (8.2.2.1259) (DB 8.2.2.339) online)

SKD/DLL version used 8.2.0 (nugets)

(side note: saving the time as entitie["datefield"] = DateTime.UtcNow always gives the correct result.)

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Alex Fun Wei Jie 33,628 on at

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Hi,

you can take a look on below post, it explains the date and time behavior in various aspect

www.powerobjects.com/.../crm-2011-truths-about-datetime

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Community Member on at

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thanks for replying,

that's one of the links i found myself while researching, unfortunately it says nothing about CRM applying both the local computers timezone as well as the user configured one, at the same time.

judging by this line, "DateTime set through CRM Web Services is user’s local time zone by default"

It would seem that it should only adjust for the user configured timezone, and ignore the computers local time. But that's not what's happening.

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Alex Fun Wei Jie 33,628 on at

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Hi,

can you share your code here? i will test it on my side

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Community Member on at

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Sure thing, and thank you for taking the time.

//boilderplate var credentials = new ClientCredentials(); credentials.UserName.UserName = userName credentials.UserName.Password = Password; string xrmServerUrl = "ourserver.crm4.dynamics.com"; Uri organizationUri = new Uri(string.Format("{0}/XRMServices/2011/Organization.svc", xrmServerUrl)); var organizationService = new OrganizationServiceProxy(organizationUri, null, credentials, null); organizationService .EnableProxyTypes(); //boilderplate //get entity var entity = organizationService.Retrieve("entityLogicalName", new Guid("C2EA1587-0731-E811-813F-00DC2967EB29"), new ColumnSet(true)); //set date field entity["datefield"] = DateTime.Now; //update organizationService.Update(entity); //retrieve updated entity, entity = organizationService.Retrieve("entityLogicalName", new Guid("C2EA1587-0731-E811-813F-00DC2967EB29"), new ColumnSet(true));
//read the date
var date = (DateTime)entity["datefield"];

with both the user's timezone in CRM and the computer running the code set to CET (2+ in summer time)

and i do this at 16:00,

i would expect the date at the end to contain a UTC datetime of 14:00

but it's actually 12:00!

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Alex Fun Wei Jie 33,628 on at

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Hi,

can you show me the datefield setting in CRM ?

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Community Member on at

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sure, it's in Dutch so i'll have to translate.

required: optional

searchable: yes,

fields security: disabled

checks: disabled

interactive: both not checked)

datatype: date and time

fieldtype: simple

behavior: usersetting

format: date and time

IME-modus: inactive

and there are no business rules defined.

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Alex Fun Wei Jie 33,628 on at

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Hi,

sorry for late, in my environment, it is working fine, is the date time setting same as yours?

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Community Member on at

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Thanks for the video, couldn't be clearer, and that's the behavior i would expect. And in fact what i get on our on-premise environments. but not online. all 3 our online instances show the same behavior.

That's so weird!

The only differences in the date time settings are that auditing is disabled and IME mode is set to inactive.

Neither one of which should have any effect on this that i can tell.

At the very least i now know its something on our end and not normal Crm online behaviour.

Tomorrow i'll see if i can try a different tenant/organisation and try the program from a different computer,

and i'll try to update the SDK files as well.

Thank you for the help so far, i'll keep you posted on the results.

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Temmy Wahyu Raharjo 2,916 on at

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Hi Vincent,

For DateTime, I suggest you to always use DateTime.UtcNow instead of DateTime.Now. It will eliminates problem with different region.

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Alex Fun Wei Jie 33,628 on at

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Hi,

is your online tenant under different regions ?

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