CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#datetimesoapwsdltimezone
Rocco Radostin Tsvetanov
Rocco Radostin Tsvetanov

Reputation: 21

How to add timezone information to DateTime of a SOAP request

I have an endpoint that based on some WSDL receives requests and builds the response object, problem is that i have a DateTime field that I have to fill with a value. When I fill this value with DateTime.Now what I see in SoapUI is the following that is correct:

2015-10-13T16:22:34.2701373+02:00

Meanwhile when I fill the field with a DateTime that is retrieved by the logic I have this that is wrong:

2015-10-05T11:40:08

Since I need the full information as it's returned in when filled by DateTime.Now what is missing and how can I add it to a DateTime object?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 3689

Answers (3)

Nikolay
Nikolay

Reputation: 1

DateTime value filled in code should have Kind property equal Local or Utc.https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.datetime.kind(v=vs.110).aspx

Upvotes: -1

Matt Johnson-Pint
Matt Johnson-Pint

Reputation: 241475

"Use DateTimeOffset" is usually good advice, but part of the problem can be that when classes are auto-generated from WSDL (either with WCF or .asmx) , the xs:DateTime types in XSD get created as DateTime objects. So - can't.

Unfortunately, there is no good solution for this. If you actually try to use DateTimeOffset in your models at the source, the WSDL gets a weird complex object. If you try to just change the receiving side, it can't deserialize an xs:DateTime into a DateTimeOffset.

This is a weakness of WCF, SOAP, and XSD. Read more in WCF DateTimeOffset compatibility.

The only workarounds when populating the data are to have the DateTime fields explicitly set to either local or UTC kind. You can use DateTime.SpecifyKind, or any of the conversion functions such as ToLocalTime, ToUniversalTime, or similar methods from TimeZoneInfo. Just be very careful if you decide to use local time, as taking the time zone from the server is usually not a great idea. It would be best to transmit in terms of universal time.

If you're just filling it with the current time, then use DateTime.UtcNow. If you're loading a UTC-based DateTime from your database, then use DateTime.SpecifyKind with DateTimeKind.Utc. If you already have a DateTimeOffset, then you can use the .UtcDateTime property to assign it to a DateTime value in your model.

If DateTimeOffset were supported properly, then the offset could be arbitrarily anything. But since it's not - you're limited to what you can express with DateTimeKind.

Upvotes: 4

user5293969
user5293969

Reputation:

Use DateTimeOffset : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.datetimeoffset(v=vs.110).aspx this will solve your problem!

Upvotes: 0

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