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Getting Dates Localized in Dovetail Agent

The abilities to have global users and a centralized server is an important feature of Dovetail Agent. Making localized date handling for all of the users is an important part of getting the right date format displayed to the users, and making sure the dates are stored correctly in the database.

Dovetail Agent recognizes the computer and browser settings for each user. Dovetail Agent allows each user to input dates in their localized date format, and relies on Dovetail SDK to convert the dates into a consistent format for storage in the database.

 

Regional Options

From the Control Panel for each client, the Regional Options tab of the Regional and Language Options has a big impact on Dovetail Agent functionality. Dovetail Agent uses the standard Visual Basic FormatDate routine, which uses the Regional settings to determine the client’s preferred date format.

 

For this discussion, the client is located in the Bristol, England office. His regional setting is set to English (United Kingdom).

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Language Preferences

More importantly though, in order for Dovetail SDK to recognize the localized date formats and make the necessary adjustments, the browser needs to have the Language setting in IE correspond to the user’s Regional Options setting.

From the Tools Menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, then click on the Languages button to open the Language Preference dialog.

Since our user is located in the Bristol, England office, the English (United Kingdom) [en-GB] needs to be selected. If is is not displayed, click the Add… button and select it from the list. Once it is shown, move the English (United Kingdom) [en-GB] line to the top of the list by clicking the row and using the Move Up button.

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Verifying in Dovetail Agent

Have the user log in to Dovetail Agent, and open the About Dovetail Agent page from the Profile menu. The Current Culture is displayed at the bottom of the page, and should now show en-GB:

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After these configuration changes are made, dates throughout Dovetail Agent are displayed to the UK user in DD/MM/YYY format, but saved to the database in MM/DD/YYYY format.

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Summary

Having dates localized is important for ease of use for the users, and is pretty easy to set up.