Sitecore populating date field with yesterday's date via $date token

Question

I have a date field in one of my templates who's default value is $date. When I create an item using that template, the raw value is 20190522Z, but when I view it not raw I see it as yesterday's date (5/21). Likewise it puts it into a bucket structure that's consistent with the actual date \2019\05\22.

I thought I had solved a similar issue before by setting my ServerTimeZone to 700 (Eastern Daylight Time) in my SitecoreSettings.config file, but this didn't seem to fix this particular issue. Is there something else I need to set for the CMS to display it with the correct friendly date?

Answer 1

The difference between $date and $now is contained within the Sitecore.Data.ReplaceValues method:

protected virtual string ReplaceValues(string text, Func<string> defaultName, Func<string> defaultId, Func<string> defaultParentName, Func<string> defaultParentId)
{
    if (text.Length == 0 || text.IndexOf('$') < 0)
    return text;
    ReplacerContext context = this.GetContext();
    if (context != null)
    {
    foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> keyValuePair in (SafeDictionary<string, string>) context.Values)
        text = text.Replace(keyValuePair.Key, keyValuePair.Value);
    }
    text = this.ReplaceWithDefault(text, "$name", defaultName, context);
    text = this.ReplaceWithDefault(text, "$id", defaultId, context);
    text = this.ReplaceWithDefault(text, "$parentid", defaultParentId, context);
    text = this.ReplaceWithDefault(text, "$parentname", defaultParentName, context);
    text = this.ReplaceWithDefault(text, "$date", (Func<string>) (() => DateUtil.IsoNowDate), context);
    text = this.ReplaceWithDefault(text, "$time", (Func<string>) (() => DateUtil.IsoNowTime), context);
    text = this.ReplaceWithDefault(text, "$now", (Func<string>) (() => DateUtil.IsoNow), context);
    return text;
}

Note the key differences:

• $date
  • nested calls listed below:
  • DateUtil.IsoNowDate = DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("yyyyMMdd") + "Z"
  • Replacement: 20190522Z
• $now
  • nested calls listed below:
  • DateUtil.IsoNow = DateUtil.ToIsoDate(DateTime.UtcNow) (DateTime.UtcNow = datetime object of UTC time)
  • datetime.ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmmss") + "Z"
  • Replacement: 20190522T122352Z

Which, as the names imply: $date is the UTC "date" string and $now is the UTC "date + time" string.

Setting time zones in Sitecore

https://doc.sitecore.com/developers/90/sitecore-experience-management/en/settings-supporting-utc-implementation.html

Valid time zone values

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/embedded/gg154758(v=winembedded.80)

Edit

Richard's answer below explains why the inclusion of the timestamp is important when resolving the proper date. Read his answer in addition to mine.

Answer 2

Based on @jraps research, this is what I believe is happening:

$date is taking the current UTC date and storing that in the DB - if you are in UTC-4 and you create the date when the UTC date has crossed over but your local date has not, then the date will appear to be stored incorrectly. This is because when Sitecore displays that date, there is no time information for it to convert back to your local time.

$now is working, because it is storing time information with the date, so Sitecore can now convert that date+time back to your timezone configured in Sitecore.

I guess $date could be considered a buggy way of storing the date, it would be better if it stored it as 20190522T000000Z, then it could at least be converted back to your configured time zone.