#21214: Why does Django display all datetimes in UTC by default?
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Reporter: guillaumechorn@… | Owner: nobody
Type: Uncategorized | Status: new
Component: Internationalization | Version: 1.4
Severity: Normal | Keywords: time zone, datetime
Triage Stage: Unreviewed | Has patch: 0
Easy pickings: 1 | UI/UX: 0
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As is mentioned
[https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.4/topics/i18n/timezones/#time-zone-
aware-input-in-forms here] in the docs, Django has time zone aware input
in forms, and as a result, PostgreSQL databases store datetime values
expressed in the time zone of which the form was aware--''not'' UTC. So
why then have Django go through the trouble of constantly converting all
datetime values queried from the database to UTC? Why not just make the
developer need to explicitly tell Django (either through a simple setting
in `settings.py`, or using an optional function in their views) that they
want values expressed in UTC?
The issue with having Django automatically convert all datetime values to
UTC, as is the case now, is that in the case that the developer wants
datetimes expressed to the user in the same time zone as they were entered
by the user (which is quite often, I would imagine), they must actually
write code to convert the values ''back'' to what is already (!) stored in
the database before rendering them in templates. I realize that this is
only strictly the case when using PostgreSQL, but it still makes very
little sense to me.
The "Time Zone aware output in templates" referred to
[https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.4/topics/i18n/timezones/#time-zone-
aware-output-in-templates here] only works in the most basic invocation of
a datetime value (something like `{{ object.datetime }}`). It doesn't
convert the hours if you use something like `{{ object.datetime.hour }}`,
or the day if you use `{{ object.datetime.day }}`. I find this extremely
limited, and quite far removed from Django's usual ability to abstract
common tasks. Obviously it's meant to work as an invisible template tag
that you don't have to type in yourself, and I understand that the same
template tag wouldn't work for both `{{ object.datetime }}` and `{{
object.datetime.day }}`. But that's why I think it would make more sense
for Django to return datetime values as they are formatted in the database
by default, rather than automatically converting them to UTC (at least
when usage of PostgreSQL has been declared in `settings.py`).
Feel free to tell me it's not worth the trouble and I'm being a whiny
ingrate, but those are my thoughts. =)
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Ticket URL: <https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/21214>
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