Time Zone Issues in CR10 and CE10

[Barb58]

I am Using Crystal Enterprise 10 and Crystal Reports 10. The problem I'm having is with reports which connect to the Remedy database. The Enterprise server is located in Washington DC and the Database is located in Oklahoma City. I am connecting to the middle tier of the Database through the Remedy ODBC. I have a login set up on the database side which is set to the Central Time Zone.

The only issue at this point is, when the reports run, all times in the reports are updated to Eastern Standard Time. When I open the database application with the same login I'm using for the ODBC to Crystal (which is set up for Central time) the database shows all the times in Central time. In order words, all the times in the reports are an hour off.

 

[MJRBIM]

What is the Time-Zone setting the User Preferences if the person who is running these reports in Crystal Enterprise..?

Both Enterprise and Remedy use GMT-ZULU time and then apply the relative-time based on the config of the user.

Is your CE-10 user set-up for Eastern or Central time...?

 

[Barb58]

Hi:
Thank you for your reply.

When I log in to the CE box, I use the admin account. As Far as running the reports, the ODBC connection logs into the Remedy DB and that login is set up for Central time. This happens whether I login and view the report in CE, or if I open the report in CR and refresh it. I still get the same results.

In other words, the ODBC does one thing when I use it to connect to Remedy and another when I use it to connect to the DB and run the reports through Crystal. Am I making any sense? LOL

 

[Barb58]

Oh yes, The reports on CE are scheduled and ran, there is no log in. No one is logging in and running the reports. They get sent a link to the instance of the report and I have a general named account embedded in the link so that when they click on it, the report just opens, so they don't have to login to CE.

 

[MJRBIM]

The "general named account" that is being used for CE-10 LINKED access probably has it's preferences set to Eastern time.

As does the "Administrator" account that you use to log-in.

If you change the preferences on those ENTERPRISE accounts to the Central timezone, then your times should appear as Central.

 

[Barb58]

When they get the link in the email, it is only to the Instance, it doesn't run the report, the report has already ran. Also, it does this in CR where there is no login to run the report, only the ODBC login to the DB which is set to central time. The General Named account is only so they dont have to login to the server to grab the latest instance of the report. There is no login on the Enterprise server to actually run the report except for the ODBC loginto the database, which is set to Central time. I tried setting up a login for someone in central time on CE and had him log in and run the report, he got the same result. Everything was in Eastern time.

I dont know if this helps, but the only way I've ever gotten the report to run in centrsl time was in CR when I changed the time zone on my CR box. Of course I cant do that. I have tried what you mention on the CE server, changed the admin and GN account to central. It still ran giving eastern times. I can't change these logins permanantly anyway as I have reports that run in the eastern time zone for people here, so even if it had worked, it wouldn't be a solution.

At first I thought it was something in the ODBC connection, but that can't be it either since the same login is used to log in to the DB when I'm here in eastern time, and the DB is showing me the times in the tickets as central time, so the ODBC connection is ok. It is something between the ODBC connection and the report running. Though I have no clue what that could be.

 

[MJRBIM]

Sorry, all I have for you from here is "head-scratching"...

I'd suggest you open a support-ticket with both BOBJ and REMEDY.

 

[Barb58]

Thanks. I know, it's very perplexing. I have a ticket open at BO but they can't seem to figure out whats up either. I've opened like 3 so far regarding this issue.

As far as opening a remedy ticket, that's a little more difficult since I'm not the admin for remedy and another group in another region controls the application. But I'm going to make a strong recommendation today for that as well. I mean crystal is embedded in their product. They ought to know what the answer is.

 

[Barb58]

Well, I've narrowed it down to SQL. It's not the ODBC connection because the same connection is used to access the application, and the application is goving the right times.
When I ran a query against the database through SQL connect, it gives me the same times at the reports are giving me. Since Crystal runs on SQL, it all makes sense. Now if I could just figure out how to make SQL give me the correct time zone.

 

[sandy3269]

I've had a issue like that and went around and around with BO support 2 years ago. Mine were the times reported by my auditing report. Basically the system is hardcoded to "Greenwich Mean Time" and you need a function to correct that in your reports.

I will deploy the code I found on this forum here later if you can't find it, as I'm on the hunt currently for a hot issue of my own.

 

[Barb58]

Tahnks Sandy, that would be great. I have a function which converts epoch time but not for the date/time iself. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Barb