NetResults

NetResults Tracker 2007 DST Change Patch - Manual Review/Update

Background

If all of the following are true

• the users of a workgroup do not all use the same time zone
• some users are in one of the affected (US/Canadian) time zones
• some users are in a time zone that is not affected by the DST date change
• some users have entered dates in the period between the new DST change date (for example, March 11, 2007) and the old DST change date (for example, April 1, 2007) or you are applying this patch after March 11, 2007

then the patch can not automatically adjust date/time values (entered by a user in an affected time zone) that are between the new and old DST change dates.

This can happen because ProblemTracker stores all dates in a common UTC time zone format (so that multiple time zones can be used in the same workgroup). Until the patch was applied, dates entered (or modified) by users in one of the affected time zones may not have been stored correctly because the new DST change dates were not taken into account when converting the date/time to the UTC time zone (which is done prior to storing it in the database). If you are applying this patch prior to March 11, 2007 then this only applies to those "future" dates that a user entered. If you are applying this patch after March 11, 2007, then it could also apply to fields that are automatically initialized (set) to the current date and time for a user by ProblemTracker.

The possibly affected date/time values include:

• Date Fields in a Record
• Explicitly-specified Alert Dates (Enterprise Edition only)
• Saved Query Date Ranges
• Saved Chart Date Ranges (Version 5.x only)

In no case will this apply to the date/time values in Record History (the audit trail) or Discussion (thread/message) time stamps because those are always retrieved from Windows and stored in the database using UTC. They are only converted on display and once you have applied the patch that conversion will take into account the new DST change dates.

What is Displayed

If the database update page in the patch detects that the situation described above has occurred, it will display a list of potentially affected date/time values. Since ProblemTracker does not know for certain which user entered the date/time value (one in an affected time zone or one in an unaffected time zone), you will need to review these fields to determine (by context) whether or not they should be adjusted (subtract 1 hour). The most obvious situation will be one where only a date would typically be entered (one without a time component). ProblemTracker always interprets and stores those values as having a time component of midnight (12:00:00 AM). So, if you see a date/time value that now has a time component of 1:00:00 AM, it most likely needs to be set back to midnight (simply remove the time component).

The list of potentially affected date/time values will have as many as five section headers (in bold): Records, Alert Settings, Standard Saved Queries, Advanced Saved Queries, and Saved Charts. Depending on your product version and the data in the workgroup, sections may be empty or not displayed at all.

The Records section will have a list of one or more date fields which have date values between the new and old DST change dates. For each date field that is listed, a set of records will be listed (by PRN -- record number). For example:
Records
Date Reported: 5,10,15,25
Fix-Close Date: 10,12,14
The above example means that records 5, 10, 15, and 25 have a Date Reported field that is between the new and old DST change date and records 10, 12, and 14 have a Fix-Close Date field that is between the new and old DST change dates. You can use the ProblemTracker Edit operation to review and update those fields. Login to the workgroup as Admin, click on the Edit icon in the toolbar, enter the PRN, click OK.

The Alert Settings section will have a list of records (by PRN). For example: Alert Settings Records: 5,10,15 The above example means that records 5, 10 and 15 have an Alert with an "if status is unchanged as of <date>" value that is between the old and new DST change dates. You can use the ProblemTracker Edit operation to update Alert Settings for a record. Login to the workgroup as Admin, click on the Edit icon in the toolbar, enter the PRN, click OK, click the Edit Alert Settings icon in the top right (it may be a button in some older versions). The Standard Saved Queries section has a list of date fields. For each date field, it will provide a list of Saved Queries that have a date value for that field which is between the old and new DST change dates. For each Saved Query, the User Group (if it's a group Saved Query) or User ID (if it's a personal Saved Query) will be displayed in brackets. For example: Standard Saved Queries Date Reported (Before): Recent Issues [Users] Fix-Close Date (After): March Fixes [sue_smith] The above example means that the Recent Issues group Saved Query (for the Users group) has a reference to Date Reported that is between the old and new DST change dates. And, the March Fixes personal Saved Query (for the user with User ID sue_smith) has a reference to Fix-Close Date that is between the old and new DST change dates. To update group Saved Queries, login as Admin, click on the Query icon in the toolbar, select the Saved Query, and click the Edit button in the Saved Queries row. For personal Saved Queries you will have to login as that user or notify the user. The Advanced Saved Queries section will just have a list of Saved Queries which use a date field which is between the old and new DST change dates. For each Advanced Saved Query, the User Group (if it's a group Saved Query) or User ID (if it's a personal Saved Query) will be displayed in brackets. For example: Advanced Saved Queries High Priority Items [QA], My Issues [sue_smith] The above example means the both the High Priority Items and My Issues Saved Queries have a date value that may need to be changed. High Priority Items is a group Saved Query (for the QA user group) and My Issues is a personal Saved Query (for the user with User ID sue_smith). To update group Advanced Saved Queries, login as Admin, click on the Query icon in the toolbar, select the Saved Query, and click the Edit button in the Saved Query bar. For personal Advanced Saved Queries you will have to login as that user or notify the user. The Saved Charts section may have two entries. Both refer to the date values that can be entered in the date range parameter in the Perform calculations... section of a Saved Chart. For each entry, it will provide a list of Saved Charts that have a date field which is between the old and new DST change dates. For each Saved Chart, the User Group (if it's a group Saved Chart) or User ID (if it's a personal Saved Chart) will be displayed in brackets. For example: Saved Charts Date Range (Start): Severity Trend [sue_smith] Date Range (End): Workload [Users] The above example means that the Workload and Severity Trend Saved Charts have a date that is between the old and new DST change dates. Workload is a group Saved Chart (for the "Users" group) and Severity Trend is a personal Saved Chart (for the user with the User ID sue_smith). To update Group Saved Charts, login as Admin, click on the Metrics icon in the toolbar, select the Saved Chart, and click the Edit button in the Saved Chart row. For personal Saved Charts you will have to login as that user or notify the user.