Wrong Time displayed in Ticket Thread

Arao

Hi,

We are using OsTicket 1.15.2 with following setup.

osTicket Version - v1.15.2 (cb6766e)
Web Server - Apache/2.4.48 (Ubuntu)
MySQL Version - 8.0.25
PHP Version - 7.2.34-23+ubuntu20.04.1+deb.sury.org+1

There is a problem with the date display in a ticket thread. Our timezone is Asia/Kolkata (UTC +5:30). A ticket was posted at 12:19 PM on 16th Sept., and then transferred to another agent. The time displayed in the transfer portion of the thread shows 2:11 PM which is 1 hr and 40 minutes ahead.

The time problem occurs when we 'transfer' a ticket to some other agent. We have not seen this problem in a normal thread although I need to check thoroughly. The system setup and the problem thread screenshots are attached.

Regards,

Anand

KevinTheJedi

@Arao

Asia/Kolkata is a notoriously bad timezone in osTicket (especially during daylight savings). You can either modify the code to hardcode the timezone or use a timezone that's in the same offset.

Cheers.

Arao

@KevinTheJedi,

Thanks for your response. Could you please point me to the appropriate code segment / file name?

Regards,
Anand

FunkFuMaster

Have you checked for the Time-Zone on the Ubuntu Server, that your osTicket instance runs on ?

Arao

Yes.
$ more /etc/timezone Asia/Kolkata

FunkFuMaster

What is value for date.timezon, under System Information -> PHP Settings,

FunkFuMaster

...also, does this come-up, when transferring the ticket ONLY to a particular agent, or with all other Agent too ?

You can also check for Time Zone under Profile for the Agent(s)

Arao

FunkFuMaster

The problem surfaces in transfers for any agent. The timezone info / profile setting for the agent is,

We noticed that the agent's timezone was set to system default and changed it to Asia/Kolkata. We then did a quick test by replying to the same ticket. This time the clock has gone forward by 2 hours and 30 mins.

Thanks,
Anand

Arao

@FunkFuMaster

Thanks for your message and sorry about the delayed reply. The timezone info in PHP section shows me a warning.

Should I change the php.ini in /etc/php/7.2/apache?

date.timezone = Asia/Kolkata

ramrajone

Arao
After having the timezone setting in php.ini, have you restarted the webserver?
You should not see a warning if the setting is taken effect

Arao

@ramrajone

Thanks. I haven't made any changes or restarted Apache as I was awaiting confirmation if that is the right change to make. There are 3 php.ini files in various directories under /etc/php/7.2

I am not sure if there is only one change or multiple changes.

Regards,
Anand

ramrajone

Arao
You have to see which version of PHP your webserver you are using, most likely it's 7.2 based on your information earlier

/etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Check this post it may help you
https://howtohelpdesk.com/how-to-set-time-zone-in-osticket/

Arao

@ramrajone

Thanks for your reply. After your earlier comment, I did end up adding the timezone info to all the php.ini files. Restarted Apache2 but there is no change. The time is off by 2.30 hours.

I also checked the link you provided and here is the output.

+--------------------+---------------------+
| @@GLOBAL.time_zone | @@SESSION.time_zone |
+--------------------+---------------------+
| SYSTEM             | SYSTEM              |
+--------------------+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

+------------------+--------+
| Variable_name    | Value  |
+------------------+--------+
| system_time_zone | IST    |
| time_zone        | SYSTEM |
+------------------+--------+

Ubuntu tzdata,

Local time is now:      Sunday 26 September 2021 07:29:23 AM IST.
Universal Time is now:  Sun Sep 26 01:59:23 UTC 2021.

I don't see anything out of the way.

Arao

Hi,

I found a workaround solution by switching to a timezone with a different offset. The new value I used in all the 3 php.ini files is,

date.timezone = Asia/Beirut

Additionally, I changed the system settings in OST Configuration and also changed the profile settings for a couple of users by setting timezone to Asia/Beirut. Restarted Apache and it now shows the correct time as per my locale.

@ntozier - Please pass on if you think its ok.

Thanks,
Anand

Anuj

Hi Anand,

I'm also facing the same issue. Can you help me.

Arao

Hi Anuj ,

You can try using Afghanistan timezone or something closer. We are still facing the same problem, so there is no workaround. It seems work sometimes but breaks too.

Regards,
Anand

jeunefemme

I'm on America/New York time, but have the same issue on each installation. Here is the fix that has worked for me for every version:

Edit mysqli.php file, which is in /public_html/support/include/mysqli.php

» CHANGE FROM
return db_get_variable('system_time_zone', 'global');

» CHANGE TO
return db_get_variable('time_zone', 'global');

Arao

Hi @jeunefemme

Thanks for the fix. I will surely try this and get back to you.

Regards,
Anand

Arao

Hi @jeunefemme

The fix didn't help and the timing is still off. Timezone setting on the PC as well as the Agents' are correct.

Regards,
Anand

jeunefemme

I guess it's because your issue has a different cause. My issue was caused by Daylight Savings Time.

There's a workaround. You can have all agents change the time settings to "Relative Time." The setting is in their profiles.