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user's Local Time into a PW php variable

tesseract

By tesseract,
in General Support

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tesseract Newbie

tesseract

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Posted

My 1st post. 

I'd like to place the user's local time (obtained via javascript) into a ProcessWire php variable.  

I've tried using $session:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo $config->urls->templates?>scripts/jquery-1.4.2.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">
     document.ready = function() {
         var visitortime = new Date();
         "<?php echo $session->time; ?>" + "=" + visitortime;     
    };
</script>
</head>

<body>
    <?php $t = $session->time; echo $t; ?>
</body>

</html>

and $input with a hidden form submitted by javascript:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo $config->urls->templates?>scripts/jquery-1.4.2.min.js"></script>
   
<script type="text/javascript">
     document.ready = function () {
         var visitortime = new Date();
    document.getElementById("utoffset").setAttribute("value",visitortime);
     document.getElementById("utoffset").submit();
     }
    </script>
</head>

<body>
    <form action="." method="post">
    <input type="hidden" id="utoffset" name="vt">
    </form>
<?php echo $input->post->utoffset; ?>
</body>  

</html>

Both display blank pages (using the above .php files as templates).

Does anyone see what I'm missing? Or is there an easier way? Completely baffled.

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adrian Hero Member

adrian

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Posted

The first option won't work because php is server-side and runs before the page loads. 

The second option has potential, but you are echo'ing:

$input->post->utoffset;

when the name of your hidden field is "vt" and not "utoffset".

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Pete Hero Member

Pete

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Posted

The problem is that you can echo PHP variables into Javascript but not the other way around - PHP is processed on the server before it's served to the browser - JavaScript is processed via the browser so it simply doesn't understand what you're doing.

In the first example, you've essentially typed " = visitortime"

EDIT: adrian beat me to it :)

There are a few different options on StackOverflow, but I like the PHP approach in this one best so far as - whilst it's not foolproof - it doesn't use Javascript so it can't be manipulated by the user: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1718935/how-do-i-get-a-visitors-time-zone-in-php

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Ben Jr. Member

Ben

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Posted

You can not know the client time at the point when the server is first hit, it would require two pages/requests - the first to serve the javascript and the second to recieve the result of the javascript. That is why it's much eaiser to pass PHP time() to the page as a javascript variable and let the client-side handle the locale, if you need to syncronize.

<script type="text/javascript">
    var d = new Date(<?php echo time(); ?> * 1000);
    document.write(d.toLocaleString());
</script>

If you must do it the other way around, you can redirect to the session - but it's a bag of worms. I'm using a non-processwire session to keep the example simple.

<?php
    session_start();
    if( !isset($_SESSION['client_time']) && isset($_GET['client_time']) ){
        $_SESSION['client_time'] = $_GET['client_time'];
    } 
?>

<script type="text/javascript">
    var server_time = '<?php echo addslashes($_SESSION['client_time']); ?>';
    if (server_time === ''){
        var d = new Date();
        window.location =  window.location + '?client_time='+encodeURI(d.toLocaleString());
    }
    document.write(server_time);
</script>

EDIT: Beaten by Adrian and Pete, also good answers.

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tesseract Newbie

tesseract

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Before reading your replies, I wanted to send the user's local time back to php, then run a bunch of astronomical calculations on the server, then refresh the visitor's page.  But that's 2 reloads after the 1st one, and it looks suspicious when a page blinks twice. Ajax might work without refreshing, but it's beyond me.

So I've thought of a work-around by doing the .php calculations using UT time, then make adjustments in .js based on visitor's UToffset.

ProcessWire is awesome.

Thanks guys,

Gregory

www.1au.com

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