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Hmwk Sets Editor2 Will Not Accept Entered Date/Time

Hmwk Sets Editor2 Will Not Accept Entered Date/Time

by James Schatzman -
Number of replies: 3
I have reported problems with the Hmwk Sets Editor2 before. Here is another problem.

I was initially able to enter due dates/answer dates. However, when I now try to change the due date and answer date to one day later, the Hmwk Sets Editor will not accept that dates/times I enter, but always changes them.

1) It always changes the timezone to EDT, even though I enter MDT, and the source configuration sets the timezone to America/Denver, which should be MDT. Also, the OS has the correct timezone.

2) For example, I enter

9/9/2013 at 11:59pm MDT

and the editor immediately changes the due date to

9/18/2013 at 08:00pm EDT

3) Similar problems with the "answer date".

4) Even if all I do is change the timezone from EDT to MDT, the editor immediately changes it back to EDT.

Help!!!



In reply to James Schatzman

Re: Hmwk Sets Editor2 Will Not Accept Entered Date/Time

by James Schatzman -
Some clarifications-

I should have said "I enter 9/19/2013 at 11:59pm EDT" and the editor immediately changes the due date to "9/18/2013 at 08:00pm EDT".

I also meant "course configuration" rather than "source configuration".

I was eventually able to get some approximation of what I wanted by using the calendar popup. By adjustung the sliders, I could get the due data/time within an hour of the correct time, although I had to set it in EDT, because the calendar popup (apparently) does not allow you to set time zone.

It is not clear to me why the developers thought that teachers would want to be setting dates/times with a variety of timezones. IMHO, all timezone should be set to the course configuration setting. Certainly, the editor should not be insisting on EDT even though I enter another (MDT).

I suspect that the problem is related to an unhelpful interaction between the text field and the calendar popup. The popup, in turn, insists on EDT. Maybe all the developers work in an EDT area and never noticed the problem? Unfortunately, it is does not seem possible to dismiss the popup and just to do text entry.

Also, it makes no difference whether I set or unset the "enable reduced credit" checkbox.

This problem is extremely annoying and I am hoping that a fix may become available soon.

Thanks!
In reply to James Schatzman

Re: Hmwk Sets Editor2 Will Not Accept Entered Date/Time

by Michael Gage -
The fix is in, thanks to Geoff Goehle:

2) For the date picker, you should definitely upgrade to the latest master.  In addition to fixing the EDT bug, datepicker was also changed to let you type whatever you want into the date fields.  In develop there will be the option to turn datepicker off, but I don’t believe that’s available in master.  


Details at:  https://github.com/openwebwork/webwork2/pull/144


Update instructions at:  http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Github#Quick_instructions_for_updating_one_of_your_branches

In reply to Michael Gage

Re: Hmwk Sets Editor2 Will Not Accept Entered Date/Time

by Sarunas Burdulis -
Thanks for the update.

This might be a lot to ask, but shouldn't Time field in datepicker switch from daylight savings to standard time and vice versa when selection is made on a relevant date? For example, in case of US Eastern time zone, selecting March 8, 2014 should be in EST, while March 9 should already be EDT...