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I can't get the client's time using PHP. I only get the server time using:

$cur_time = date('d-m-Y h:i:s A');

How can I fix this problem?

Someone said "You can fix it using timezone". But how can I?

I want to solve this problem without using JavaScript.

cabrerahector
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Ekaterina Antropova
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2 Answers2

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You need some javascript first to get the browsers timezone

Determine a user's timezone

Then use the timezone in your php script to calculate the current time where the browser is.

$tz = new DateTimeZone($browser_tz);
$dt = new DateTime();
$dt->setTimezone($tz);
$cur_time = $dt->format("d-m-Y h:i:s A");
John.M
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If you want to achieve this just using PHP:

  1. Fetch User's IP Address
  2. Locate User's Location based on their IP Address. This can be done using 3rd Party API or, GEO IP Databases
  3. Get User's Timezone with the Country Code and with/without Region Code
  4. Get Time According to the timezone.

MaxMind's Dev: https://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/

Code:

<?php

if(!isset($_COOKIE['timezone'])){

    $ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

    //Open GeoIP database and query our IP
    $gi = geoip_open("GeoLiteCity.dat", GEOIP_STANDARD);
    $record = geoip_record_by_addr($gi, $ip);

    //If we for some reason didnt find data about the IP, default to a preset location.
    //You can also print an error here.
    if(!isset($record))
    {
        $record = new geoiprecord();
        $record->latitude = 59.2;
        $record->longitude = 17.8167;
        $record->country_code = 'SE';
        $record->region = 26;
    }

    //Calculate the timezone and local time
    try
    {
        //Create timezone
        $user_timezone = new DateTimeZone(get_time_zone($record->country_code, ($record->region!='') ? $record->region : 0));

        setcookie("timezone", $user_timezone, time() + (86400 * 30), "/"); //setting cookie to the browser for reference

        //Create local time
        $user_localtime = new DateTime("now", $user_timezone);
        $user_timezone_offset = $user_localtime->getOffset();        
    }
    //Timezone and/or local time detection failed
    catch(Exception $e)
    {
        $user_timezone_offset = 7200;
        $user_localtime = new DateTime("now");
    }

    echo 'User local time: ' . $user_localtime->format('H:i:s') . '<br/>';
    echo 'Timezone GMT offset: ' . $user_timezone_offset . '<br/>';
}
?>


<script type="text/javascript">
function getCookie(cname) {
  var name = cname + "=";
  var decodedCookie = decodeURIComponent(document.cookie);
  var ca = decodedCookie.split(';');
  for(var i = 0; i <ca.length; i++) {
    var c = ca[i];
    while (c.charAt(0) == ' ') {
      c = c.substring(1);
    }
    if (c.indexOf(name) == 0) {
      return c.substring(name.length, c.length);
    }
  }
  return "";
}
if(getCookie('timezone')!=Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone){
    document.cookie = "timezone="+Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone;
    location.reload();
}
</script>

Note: PHP code might not be effective all the time. The javascript code written above will ensure that the PHP-fetched timezone match the timezone with the browser, otherwise it updates the timezone info in cookie and reloads the page.

LIGHT
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    It's important to note that GeoIP approaches may be incorrect in many cases. I sometimes get geolocated to Kansas, two timezones away from my actual one in New York. Someone on a VPN would potentially experience the same; someone traveling overseas temporarily might not want all the times in the app changed. You may want to use this to set a *default*, but allow the user to configure it manually too. – ceejayoz Jul 09 '19 at 19:27
  • @ceejayoz True that there might be some issues. I just edited the answer with a javascript code to get the user browser's timezone and reload the page if it doesn't match the timezone resolved by PHP. Please have a look at it. – LIGHT Jul 09 '19 at 19:49