Time Zone 2.3

This is a plugin for WordPress. It will automatically set the weblog time offset based on the time zone of the server, or using an explicit TZ value. The main purpose of this plugin is to allow automatic DST handling.

Download: timezone.php

Requirements

WordPress 1.5 or later (including 2.x).

Installation

Download timezone.php and save it in the wp-content/plugins directory of your WordPress installation. Activate the Time Zone plugin in the Plugins admin page.

Once activated, the plugin provides a Time Zone subpage in the Options page. It will show you the detected settings, and allows setting an explicit TZ value.

Notes

PHP installations running in safe mode do not allow setting an explicit TZ value. On such systems the TZ input field is not shown.

Changing the TZ value only works on UNIX-like systems. You can still use this plugin on other systems, if the server time zone is correct for you. If the system switches to DST automatically, your weblog will too, if this plugin is enabled.

What TZ values to use?

You will need to know the appropriate value for the server operating system. You can verify the effects of the value from the option page provided by the plugin. On modern UNIX-like systems the TZ values are usually named after cities for the surrounding areas.

Here are some examples to try:

  • America/New_York
  • America/Indianapolis
  • America/Chicago
  • America/Denver
  • America/Los_Angeles
  • America/Anchorage
  • Pacific/Honolulu
  • Europe/London
  • Europe/Paris
  • Europe/Helsinki

Note that TZ values are often different from the “time zone name” used by a given TZ value. E.g. the TZ value America/New_York uses EST (and EDT) for the time zone name.

If you have a UNIX shell account, read the tzset(3) and environ(7) manual pages to find out what should work on your server.

Kimmo Suominen

(2.10.2011)